No special week is complete without a movie. The week we saw the movie ‘The band’s visit”’.Eight Egyptian musicians who comprise the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra are visiting Israel to perform but get lost in the city and land up in the wrong place.With no transportation out or any hotels to stay at, the band settles at a restaurant owned by Dina, who offers them lodging. Overcoming ethnic barriers, the Egyptians find diversion and companionship with the Israelis through a pervading undercurrent of shared melancholy.
The movies highlighted many aspects of Language and culture:
- What happens when we do not know a language and/or the culture?
- How we interpret others not just through the language but through emotions, actions and body language.
- How language might be different but human emotions are basically the same.
- How much we communicate when we do not speak (watch the scene when one of the band members helps the Israeli lad to connect to his girlfriend)
- How music connects us across nations and hence speaks a global language.
and so on. A very enjoyable movie indeed.