THE BAND’S VISIT (BIKUR HA-TIZMORE) is writer/director Eran Kolirin’s account of an Egyptian police band’s visit at the Arab Arts Centre in Israel.  From the start at the border, things do not go well as expected.  The band led by Lieutenant-colonel Tawfig (Sasson Gabai) is lost but eventually finds the way through a series of comic misadventures.  The Arab Casanova of the band, Khaled (Saleh Bakri) uses the opportunity to hook up with a few local girls as well, to hilarious results.

Kolirin pits well the old (Tawfig) and the new (Khaled) ways of thinking.  The romantic encounter at a restaurant between Tawfig and Dina (Ronit Elkabetz) is the film’s sweetest sequence. 

Kolirin’s humour is wry and often dead pan, reminiscent of Kaurismaki’s LENINGRAD COWBOY films, though not as funny.  The words that appear at the start of the film describe the band’s visit in Israel as an event that was not so important that not many will remember.  Though Kolirin’s film (his debut feature) is affable and entertaining, the same can be said of his film.  The film has garnered quite a few prizes including last year’s Cannes Un Certain Regard and the Israel Film Academy’s Best Picture awards.