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Bikur Ha-Tizmoret (The Band’s Visit) by Eran Kolirin

Winner of the Best Script Award and Best New Director Award in 2007.

The Band’s Visit is a very simple but sweet story about an Egyptian Police band that travels to Israel in order to play at the inaugural ceremony of an Arab culture centre, but for some reason they are left stranded at the airport.
The director of the band is too proud to ask for help from the Embassy and he decides they should find the place on their own. And that is how they arrive at a small Israeli town where they interact with some of the locals.

The strength about The Band’s Visit is that, unlike other films, even if you read about the plot or watch the trailer, it won’t spoil it for you, since the charm of the film is not in the plot, but in the emotions, the feelings, the humour and the outstanding faultless performances by the cast.

This movie is a glimmer of hope (it was a good job I watched it after La Zona, because that one left me thinking humanity is capable of doing anything -will write about La Zona some other day-). The Band’s Visit is a film to remind us that we humans share the same feelings regardless of boundaries, flags, languages or religions. Feelings of joy, sadness, pride, love, fear, remorse, etc. make all of us equals.

It is the kind of movie that will make you laugh and at the same time move you. But what I would highlight about this film is its capacity to make you smile. I love it when films make me smile, when I realise I am looking at the screen with a grin from ear to ear. I have this feeling that it is relatively easy for a film to make you laugh or cry. But making you smile during minutes? That’s another story!

All characters are fantastic in their own way, and there are some scenes that cracked me up like the ones of the phone box, the birthday dinner or the skating disco.
Tawfiq, the band director, really moved me, but Simon made my heart bleed with his tenderness and his acceptance. Both of them said it all with their facial expressions, no words were needed to know what they were feeling or thinking. Haled made me laugh, but not more than the two Israeli guys from the restaurant. Cheeky Dina conducted the story really well and made it spicier… She was somehow the link between the rest of the characters.

And what can I say about the music? Absolutely loved it! I can’t get enough of Reem Talhami’s Kol Shee Helo. Such a magnificent song!

To sum it up: a great example of how an extremely simple story can be pure entertainment.

Esemble, c’est tout (Hunting and Gathering) by Claude Berri

I am biased with this one. It is an Audrey Tautou film. And she is yet to disappoint me. The woman is so watchable that I will find her delightful even when she is wearing the ugliest haircut in the world.

Based on a best seller in France by Anna Gavalda, Hunting and Gathering is a film about lonely characters that meet in a big impersonal city. It’s the story of four very different characters that get to know each other through one of them, Philibert Marquet de la Tubelière (Laurent Stocker). It is surprising how one can become so fond of a character like Philibert, regardless of the peculiar way he dresses or his irritating stutter. He is basically a good-hearted guy and laughter is assured when he is on screen.

Camille Fauque (Audrey Tautou) is a mysterious lonely girl who doesn’t look much after herself but she worries about others. She doesn’t get on with her mother and this is something she has in common with Franck (Guillaume Canet), who hardly knows his mother, works too many hours as a cook (hey, it is France! we ought to have a cook!) and looks after his grandmother, Paulette (Françoise Bertin) as much as his job lets him. Very sweet and tender moments are served through Paulette’s character. I couldn’t stand seeing her cry!

I think this is all I would give away about this film to someone who hasn’t seen it yet. One of the good things about film festivals is that you will find yourself going to movies you don’t know anything about (although I would say that at the same time it can be the worse thing too!). I went to see this film knowing absolutely nothing, except that Audrey was in it. When I decided to write about it, I checked the trailer, but decided I would not include it on the post, because I realized the trailer gives too much away. So if you decide to watch this movie, make sure you don’t watch the trailer before.

The background music is really beautiful and although we will find a couple of songs by Hard-Fi in the soundtrack thanks to Franck’s character, the French flavour is guaranteed through the marvellous song La bicyclette, by Yves Montand.

All in all, a feeling-good-movie worthy of the Audience Award at the Seminci festival.