Director: Eran Kolirin Year: 2007 Rating: 8.5 Country:
Israel
This small very simple film has received loads of praise and prizes at various
film festivals and every bit of it is deserved. It begins in a state of sublime
droll comedy and evolves from there to something that pierces the soul and
uplifts it at the same time. Eight members of the Egyptian Alexandria Police
Orchestra land in Israel for a concert they are to give, but no one has bothered
to meet them at the airport. They are led by the rigid, somber and stuffy
Tawfiq (Sasson Gabal in as marvelous a performance as I’ve seen in years)
who adamantly refuses to ask the embassy for help. Instead they decide to
get to the town on their own but after Saleh the band’s lothario sings Chet
Baker’s version of “My Funny Valentine” to the female clerk, he gets the
wrong information and they end up on the roadside of a desolate isolated
settlement all adorned in their best dress uniforms with only Egyptian money
in their pockets. They are taken in by Dina (Ronit Elkabetz), the earthy
sensual proprietress of a small restaurant for the night and in the ensuing
hours their sad lonely lives quietly leak out through conversation, silences,
remembrances and music in a pool of common humanity. This is one of my favorite
films of the year.
