The Band's Visit

The Movie For many Americans, life in and the people from the Middle East is an abstraction, something that takes up a few minutes' worth of air time on the evening news or a talk show. Amid all the unrelentingly negative news, it's hard to get a sense of the day-to-day lives of those many millions of Middle Easterners living in Israel, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. What must seem utterly banal to those living in the Middle East can fascinate American film audiences -- just as American documentaries and intimate character studies can provide illuminating insight into an equally foreign country and culture. Sometimes, taking a moment to simply appreciate that we are all human beings can reveal a plethora of intangible riches. Writer/director Eran Kolirin's The Band's Visit is little more than 24 hours in the lives of the... [read full story]