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‘The Band’s Visit’ will receive its belated commercial release in Australia, opening in cinemas on 28 June following its screening at the Sydney International Film Festival.
The story of the film is well documented – the most successful film in Israel’s history (more than $10 million at the global box-office, the first to pass $US3 million in the US), more than 30 awards at home and abroad, a 15 minute standing ovation at its premier in Cannes. It was banned from screening at the Cairo International Film Festival but has been favourably reviewed by critics in both Egypt and Lebanon where it is a popular bootleg film. The film was also disqualified from the Best Foreign Language Oscar short-list due to the percentage of English featured.
As a film about the Alexandria Egyptian Police Orchestra visiting Israel on a tour of friendship, promptly getting lost and finding themselves in a small town in the Negev Desert, the use of English as the main language of communication is not surprising.
The film has been acclaimed on an unprecedented scale for an Israeli film – even by recent standards, where two to three films per year produced in Israel are internationally much-lauded. Awards include Un Certain Regard and the International Critics Prize at Cannes, European Discovery of the Year (director Eran Kolirin) and Best Actor (Sasson Gabai) at the European Film Awards, 8 Ophir Awards (Israeli Oscars) and Audience Awards at Munich, Sarajevo, Copenhagen, Warsaw, Arte Mare and Paris film festivals.
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