The Band’s Visit (2007)

From NetFlix:

When an Egyptian police brass band travels to Israel to
play at the opening of an Arab arts center, they wind up
abandoned and lost in a remote desert town in this charming
cross -cultural comedy. Defying expectations, the tiny Israeli
community embraces the musicians, and both the Egyptians and
the locals learn a few things about one another — and
themselves — in this witty winner of the Cannes Film Festival
Un Certain Regard prize.

This movie is in English, Arabic, and Hebrew. There are subtitles. Wife Kathy loved this film (and that is really saying something!). It is a slow (should I say almost deadly) film with an indie flavor. But the slowness fits perfectly with the stark, and for me frightening, loneliness of the Israeli desert town. I could not imagine being in such a flat, hot, almost uninhabited place. Beneath the deadpan lifelessness of the members of the band (except for the new young recruit), lies some sorrow to be revealed. Kathy did not even fall asleep once. This film might not be for everyone. Some sex, possibly not for children.

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