The bus sets off again.
It leaves 8 little men on the ground, all dressed in the same way, with light blue suits and official hats.
Each one has placed a trolley and a case next to their feet. Eight different cases, some as large as a cello, some as small as a flute. And that's what the eight cases actually contain: cellos, trumpets, clarinets, flutes. Because the 8 little men all dressed the same are the musical band of the Police of Alexandria in Egypt, not Casal Palocco.
They have a concert the next day in Bet Hatikva, an important concert, a meeting point between the Muslim Egypt and Israel. There is no one waiting for them though, why? And what is this desert, this ghost town? Wait, Bet Hatikva... oh god, do you want to see that it was Petah Tikva?
The buses that pass through Bet Hatikva and take you to Petah Tikva are limited, in fact, let's say there is only one, or rather, let's say that there WAS only one, the one they just got off of. All that remains is to spend the night in this desert, in this ghost town. All that remains is to spend it at the home of some Israeli with a heart of gold.
Very sweet, tender, measured, profound film with, among other things, a cast of extraordinary level, above all the actor who plays the General (a sort of our Tirabassi who is 20 years older) and the beautiful Israeli woman... The register is almost that of a comedy, a comedy intended a bit like Kusturica to understand each other.< br />The film does not have the presumption of telling the Israeli question through the metaphor of a small story. Anyone who sees this in La Banda is wrong, and very wrong. Because this little film only tells of microscopic emotional dynamics, it tells of sadness and happiness, of love and memory, of guilt and hope. It tells how humanity can sometimes, even in the face of murderous religious differences, manage to spend the night together, telling each other about their weaknesses, asking for comfort in the arms of others, helping each other. And so the handsome trumpeter can teach the art of loving and seducing the awkward and ugly Israeli (in a very funny scene), and so three other members of the band can overcome hardships and cultural differences through the magic of music, and so the general he can spend a wonderful night with the beautiful Israeli who hosts him. Maybe she would like love, that dreamy love hidden among the magic of the Arabic language or in Egyptian films, or maybe she would just like a night of sex but not him, a character with incredible dignity and immense melancholy charge will remain in his shell at least until the night brings him advice and an always dormant sense of guilt comes back violently. And in the film's main scene, a scene that can probably remain hidden and go unnoticed, the general makes a relaxing gesture towards the young rebel trumpeter because this is what he should have done with his son. Young man, live your life, have fun, do everything your age allows you to do. And take this woman, I'm old, tired and sad. They are 5 minutes of crazy intensity.
And so, between a boy who hears the sea in his ears, a musician who senses the closing of his Concerto in the stupid melody of a children's trinket and a General and a Woman who in a few hours discover more about themselves than they have in a lifetime, we reach the end.
The little concert will take place. In Petah Tikva obviously.
As in Mid-August Lunch you can get bored, say that the film is about nothing, say that in the end nothing happens. However, we should understand that the exact opposite is true, nothingness is robots, supersonic machines, zombies and ghost pirates. They are nothing because they do not belong to our life. These films instead tell about us, our humble existences and our small emotions. They may not please us, they may bore us or make us remain indifferent but if they talk about nothingness, then we are the nothingness.
