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The Band’s Visit – Ethel Barrymore Theatre
The Band’s Visit is a New Broadway Musical based on a film by Eran Kollirin and was Israel’s original Foreign Language Film submission for the 80th Academy Awards, but was rejected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences because it contained over 50% English dialogue. Thus, Israel sent Beaufort instead; Beaufort was finally included in the five final nominees. ‘Band’s Visit’ won eight Israeli Ophir Prizes awarded by the Israeli Film Academy.
The Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra, consisting of eight men, arrive in Israel from Egypt. They have been booked by an Arab cultural centre in Petah Tikva, but through a miscommunication (Arabic has no “p” sound, and regularly replaces it with “b”), the band takes a bus to Beit Hatikva, a fictional town in the middle of the Negev Desert. There is no transportation out of the city that day, and there are no hotels for them to spend the night in. The band members dine at a small restaurant where the owner, Dina (Ronit Elkabetz) invites them to stay the night at her apartment, at her friends’ apartment, and in the restaurant. That night challenges all of the characters
