# The Band's Visit (زيارة الفرقة الموسيقية) (2007 film)
**The Band's Visit** (Hebrew: ביקור התזמורת, *Bikur HaTizmoret*; Arabic: زيارة الفرقة الموسيقية) is a 2007 Israeli-French comedy-drama written and directed by Eran Kolirin, in his debut theatrical feature. It follows the eight members of Egypt's Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra who, stranded at the airport with no one to meet them, take the wrong bus and spend a single night in a small, desolate Israeli desert town instead of reaching their booking in Petah Tiqva.[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/bikur-hatizmoret/) • [2](https://www.asiapacificscreenawards.com/films/the-bands-visit)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and writer | Eran Kolirin, his first theatrical feature (he had previously made TV films)[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/bikur-hatizmoret/) • [3](https://www.screendaily.com/the-bands-visit-bikur-hatizmoreth/4032685.article) |
| Countries and languages | Israel and France; dialogue in Arabic, Hebrew, and English[4](https://www.bleibergent.com/the-bands-visit) |
| Principal cast | Sasson Gabai as Tewfiq, Ronit Elkabetz as Dina, Saleh Bakri as Haled[2](https://www.asiapacificscreenawards.com/films/the-bands-visit) |
| Cannes 2007 | Un Certain Regard Jury's "Coup de Coeur"[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/bikur-hatizmoret/) |
| Israeli awards | Seven Ophir Prizes from the Israeli Film Academy, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/387679/the-bands-visit) |
| Oscar eligibility | Ruled ineligible for the Academy's foreign-language film category and the Golden Globes because more than half the dialogue is in English[6](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-dec-02-ca-band2-story.html) |
| US release and gross | Limited release February 8, 2008; US box office $3.1 million[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_bands_visit) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and premise
The film opens with the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra, eight Egyptian policemen in powder-blue uniforms with gold braid, arriving in Israel to play at the opening ceremony of an Arab cultural center in Petah Tiqva. No delegation meets them at the airport, and through a language mix-up over the similar-sounding place names they board a bus to Bet Hatikva, a dusty town in the Negev Desert. With no bus back until the next day and no hotel in town, the musicians become overnight guests of the local townspeople, led by Dina (Ronit Elkabetz), the wry owner of the local café, who billets them in homes around town.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/387679/the-bands-visit) • [2](https://www.asiapacificscreenawards.com/films/the-bands-visit)
The night unfolds as a series of small encounters rather than a plotted drama. The stern bandleader Tewfiq (Sasson Gabai) spends the evening in conversation with Dina; the youngest member, Haled (Saleh Bakri), a self-styled ladies' man fond of [Chet Baker](https://www.edgepedia.org/chet-baker), coaches a nervous Israeli youth through a roller-rink double date; and other band members awkwardly intrude on a local birthday dinner and a marriage under strain. Dina's line that the town has "no Arab culture, not Israeli culture, no culture at all" frames the setting as a place apart from both cultures' centers.[8](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-bands-visit/) • [9](https://www.independent.com/2008/03/13/bands-visit/)
Kolirin has said the story is entirely fictitious, not based on a real-life incident involving a lost Egyptian police orchestra in Israel.[6](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-dec-02-ca-band2-story.html) He described the film as "lost people meeting lost people" and said he began with an image of a man in a uniform singing an Arabic song. He kept the stories small and intimate, avoiding the expected clichés of cultural collision, and insisted the film carries no single message despite its political setting.[10](https://www.mprnews.org/story/2008/02/26/kolirin) • [5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/387679/the-bands-visit) • [11](https://www.campuscircle.com/review.cfm?r=4897)
## Production
The film was produced by Eilon Ratzkovsky, Ehud Bleiberg, Guy Jacoel, Yossi Uzrad, and Koby Gal-Raday, with Michel Zana and Sophie Dulac co-producing for the French side. Shai Goldman was the cinematographer, Habib Shehadeh Hanna composed the music, and Arik Lahav-Lebovitch edited. Production companies included July August Productions of Tel Aviv and Sophie Dulac Productions in France.[2](https://www.asiapacificscreenawards.com/films/the-bands-visit) • [1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/bikur-hatizmoret/)
The dialogue is mostly in English because English serves as the common language through which the [Egyptians](https://www.edgepedia.org/egyptians) and Israelis communicate; the characters retain Arabic and Hebrew for confidential exchanges, and miscommunication itself is a running motif of the film.[8](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-bands-visit/)
## Reception and awards
The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, where it received the Jury's "Coup de Coeur" and, according to one account, a standing ovation.[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/bikur-hatizmoret/) • [12](https://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2008/08/01/israeli-filmmaker-discusses-trials-and-tribulations-of-the-bands-visit/) It went on to win seven Ophir Prizes from the Israeli Film Academy, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and acting awards for Ronit Elkabetz, Sasson Gabai, and Saleh Bakri, along with more than 30 other international festival awards, including Best Actor and Best Discovery at the [European Film Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/european-film-awards).[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/387679/the-bands-visit) • [4](https://www.bleibergent.com/the-bands-visit)
In the United States, distributed by [Sony Pictures Classics](https://www.edgepedia.org/sony-pictures-classics), it was one of the best-reviewed and financially successful foreign imports of 2008, grossing $3.1 million and holding a 98% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 118 reviews.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/387679/the-bands-visit) • [7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_bands_visit) Critics described it as a quiet, understated character piece; Roger Ebert, longtime film critic of the *Chicago Sun-Times* and winner of the 1975 [Pulitzer Prize](https://www.edgepedia.org/pulitzer-prize) for criticism, wrote that the film shows Arabs and Israelis "as only ordinary people with ordinary hopes, lives and disappointments."[13](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-bands-visit-2008)
The film also drew criticism from both directions inside Israel: the radical right claimed the Egyptian characters were portrayed in a better light than the Israelis, while leftists complained the film was too soft.[12](https://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2008/08/01/israeli-filmmaker-discusses-trials-and-tribulations-of-the-bands-visit/)
## The language controversy
The film's widest headlines came not from its content but from its dialogue. Both the [Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences](https://www.edgepedia.org/academy-of-motion-picture-arts-and-sciences), which governs the Oscars, and the [Hollywood Foreign Press Association](https://www.edgepedia.org/hollywood-foreign-press-association), which oversees the Golden Globes, ruled it ineligible for their foreign-language categories because more than half the dialogue is in English. Israel's submission to the 80th Academy Awards was therefore disqualified.[6](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-dec-02-ca-band2-story.html) • [7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_bands_visit) Commentators noted the irony that English appears in the film precisely as the plot device by which Egyptians and Israelis speak to each other.[14](https://theindependentcritic.com/the_band_s_visit)
## Egypt: ban and later screenings
Egypt barred any public screening of the film. The [Cairo International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/cairo-international-film-festival) rejected it, and after the Egyptian Actors' Union threatened to boycott the Abu Dhabi Film Festival over its inclusion, that festival dropped the film at the last minute. Bootleg copies circulated privately among Egyptian viewers nonetheless.[15](https://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0%2C7340%2CL-3497351%2C00.html) • [16](https://bdsmovement.net/news/bands-visit%25E2%2580%2599-premiere-egypt)
In 2008 the Israeli Embassy in Egypt arranged a private screening at the Four Seasons hotel in Giza, attended by representatives of Egyptian ministries and by the authors Ali Salem and Anis Mansour. Egyptian publications later criticized the event, with the daily *El Badeel* calling for attendees to be blacklisted on grounds of cultural normalization (accepting, and thus legitimizing, relations with Israel).[12](https://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2008/08/01/israeli-filmmaker-discusses-trials-and-tribulations-of-the-bands-visit/)
## Musical adaptation
A stage musical adaptation, with music and lyrics by David Yazbek and a book by Itamar Moses, premiered in December 2016 at the [Atlantic Theater Company](https://www.edgepedia.org/atlantic-theater-company)'s Off-Broadway Linda Gross Theater and opened on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in November 2017. The production went on to win [Tony Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/tony-awards), and cast members reported that the story of strangers sharing an ordinary evening, without reference to politics, resonated with Arab and Israeli audiences alike.[17](https://dramatics.org/the-bands-visit/) • [18](https://time.com/5300133/ariel-stachel-bands-visit-tony-nomination/)
## References
1. [Bikur Hatizmoret (The Band's Visit), Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/bikur-hatizmoret/)
2. [The Band's Visit (Bikur Hatizmoret), Asia Pacific Screen Awards](https://www.asiapacificscreenawards.com/films/the-bands-visit)
3. [The Band's Visit (Bikur Hatizmoreth), Screen Daily](https://www.screendaily.com/the-bands-visit-bikur-hatizmoreth/4032685.article)
4. [The Band's Visit, Bleiberg Entertainment](https://www.bleibergent.com/the-bands-visit)
5. [The Band's Visit, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/387679/the-bands-visit)
6. [When is a film too English for its own good?, Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-dec-02-ca-band2-story.html)
7. [The Band's Visit, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_bands_visit)
8. [Review: The Band's Visit, Slant Magazine](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-bands-visit/)
9. [The Band's Visit, The Santa Barbara Independent](https://www.independent.com/2008/03/13/bands-visit/)
10. [A strange trip for 'The Band's Visit', MPR News](https://www.mprnews.org/story/2008/02/26/kolirin)
11. [The Band's Visit, Campus Circle](https://www.campuscircle.com/review.cfm?r=4897)
12. [Israeli filmmaker discusses trials and tribulations of "The Band's Visit", Daily News Egypt](https://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2008/08/01/israeli-filmmaker-discusses-trials-and-tribulations-of-the-bands-visit/)
13. ["Here there is no culture at all.", RogerEbert.com](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-bands-visit-2008)
14. [The Independent Critic: "The Band's Visit" Review](https://theindependentcritic.com/the_band_s_visit)
15. [The band's ban, Ynet](https://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0%2C7340%2CL-3497351%2C00.html)
16. ['The Band's Visit' to premiere in Egypt, BDS Movement](https://bdsmovement.net/news/bands-visit%25E2%2580%2599-premiere-egypt)
17. [Creating the Tony-Winning Musical The Band's Visit, Dramatics Magazine](https://dramatics.org/the-bands-visit/)
18. [I Once Hid My Middle Eastern Identity. Being Cast in the Musical The Band's Visit Changed That, Time](https://time.com/5300133/ariel-stachel-bands-visit-tony-nomination/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 2007 to 2008 › Released in 2007*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license