Band's Visit, The (Bikur Ha-Tizmoret) (2007)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy Drama	Interviews-Crew-At The Movies interview with Eran Kolirin Theatrical Trailer-The Band's Visit Teaser Trailer-Madman Propaganda
Rating
Year Of Production	2007
Running Time	83:26 (Case: 85)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Eran Kolirin
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Sasson Gabai Ronit Elkabetz Saleh Bakri Khalifa Natour
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$29.95	Music	Habib Shadah

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Unknown	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Every now and then a modest film comes along that captures the hearts of audiences worldwide - The Band's Visit (Bikur Ha-Tizmoret) is one such film. The film did just as well critically, winning countless awards from various film societies and festivals around the globe. The Band's Visit is the debut feature of Israeli writer-director, Eran Kolirin, who has rejuvenated the typical "stranger in a strange land" premise with this film.

    The eight Egyptian members of the Alexandria Ceremonial Orchestra arrive in Israel for a performance at the Arab Culture Centre. Standing proudly in their immaculate pastel blue uniforms, the men tend to blend into the dry and dusty landscape. The veteran and proud leader of the band, Tawfig (Sasson Gabai) is keen for this performance to go well, because the band is currently struggling to sustain their financial viability.

    At the bus depot, Haled (Saleh Bakri) is assigned the task of booking the bus tickets to take them to their final destination. Haled is a bit of a ladies man and is far more intent on sweet-talking the young cashier than concentrating on their intended destination. Subsequently, the band arrives in the wrong town, miles from their desired destination and the performance is scheduled for the very next day.

    Stranded without adequate funds and with no accommodation, the band find themselves at a small restaurant run by the lovely, Dina (Ronit Elkabetz). She kindly feeds the musicians and arranges overnight accommodation for them at various friends' houses. The band members split up and go to their respective host homes for the night.

    During the course of the night the Arab musicians and their Israeli hosts learn that their lives aren't so different. Dina takes Tawfig out for a night on the town - albeit, it's a very quite town. Haled goes to a roller-disco with a romantically challenged couple. Other band members become involved in a very subdued family birthday celebration.

    The events and revelations of the night seem to dissolve into the harsh morning sunshine of the next day. But as the band prepares to leave, it is clear that their brief visit has left an impression on many.

    Performances from the entire cast are first rate and the subtle humour is perfectly pitched. Shai Goldman's cinematography is beautifully framed, conveying the isolation and the landscape with great distinction.

    The Band's Visit was Israel's official entry to the Best Foreign Language Film category of the 2008 Academy Awards. However, because the majority of spoken dialogue in the film is English, the film was disqualified.

    The Band's Visit is an unassuming and charming film, which on face value appears to be very simplistic. However, in reality, there is much more going on within the narrative than is initially apparent. Highly recommended.

Video

    The Band's Visit is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, which is 16x9 enhanced. The correct aspect ratio for the film is 1.85:1.

    The transfer has an impressive degree of sharpness and clarity. Some scenes actually appeared close to HD in quality. Blacks were deep and clean, while shadow detail was outstanding.

    The colour palette was generally very soft, with just the occasional splash of vivid colour. All colours appeared totally natural and are beautifully balanced in the transfer.

    To be really pedantic, there is one extremely negligible MPEG artefact in the form of macro blocking, which occurs at 8:56. It must be said, this artefact is barely noticeable during normal viewing.

    English subtitles are available. They are very easily legible in bold yellow.

    This disc is a DVD 9, dual layer disc. The layer change is well placed and occurs at 69:19.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are three languages spoken in the film. You might expect Hebrew and Arabic to dominate the film, but English is actually the predominate language spoken in the film. The only audio track on the disc is Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s), which is surround encoded.

    I found the dialogue quality to be excellent throughout and there were no apparent issues with audio sync.

    The original music by Habib Shadah is mostly traditional and totally appropriate for the film. Occasionally, he also uses soft piano to great effect in the score.

    The Band's Visit is not the sort of film to benefit much from a big surround mix. I'm guessing that this is probably why we haven't been given the Dolby 5.1 option on the disc. The surround channels mainly carried music and subtle, ambient sound.

    I didn't detect any activity from the subwoofer.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The main menu is static, 16x9 enhanced and features a sample of music from the film.

At The Movies Interview with Eran Kolirin (4:32)

    This very brief interview is courtesy of the ABC program, At The Movies and features director, Eran Kolirin talking about The Band's Visit.

Theatrical Trailer

    The Band's Visit (Bikur Ha-Tizmoret) (1:58) 

Madman Propaganda

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall