Stockholm Film Festival

This whimsical tale about an Egyptian policeorchestra stranded in the Israeli desert en routeto a concert speaks in controversial silence.The eight men in azure uniforms, along withtheir conductor Tawfiq, struggle by the sweatof their brows to represent and maintain theircountry’s honour. Lending a helping hand,Dina, a local café manager, persuades herfriends to invite members of the lost band –all alienated in the Israeli desert – into theirhomes where the forgotten history betweenIsrael and Egypt resurfaces. The picaresqueform of Eran Kolirin’s first feature film combinesamusing dialogue, poetic shooting and aserious cross-cultural topic. The film is firstaccompanied by the sounds of Chet Baker andUmm Kulthumand and finally by the lonesometones of the orchestra itself—their music a remarkable synthesis of the complicatedrelationship between the two cultures.

Premiere Status

Swedish Premiere

Orig. title

Bikur ha-tizmoret

Cast

Sasson Gabai, Saleh Bakri, Khalifa Natour

Producer

Ehud Bleiberg, Koby Gal-Raday, Guy Jacoel, Eylon Ratzkovsky, Yossi Uzrad

Script

Eran Kolirin

Cinematography

Shai Goldman

Music

Habib Shadah

Spoken language

Arabic, English, Hebrew

 

Other films from the Open Zone section

See all the festival films from 2007