Last week I rented a DVD that I had not heard of, based solely on the description on the box. We watched it last Sunday afternoon, a real cozy afternoon with the fire going and pets dotted around the room on laps, floor, and pillows. Mike never quite knows what to expect from the films I bring home as our tastes differ initially, in the selection process. I've disappointed him only a few times. Last weekend was not one of those occasions......
The Band's Visit is a rare phenomenon, a bare truth in the desert, where, as the lead female character informs the band, there "is no culture at all." There may be no culture at all in the Israeli town where the Egyptian police band has become lost but there is quiet understanding and poignancy and passion and peace.
The movie's trailer:
Damn wars.
There is a photo and commentary about war by Di Mackey at People become stories and stories become understanding: The Iron Harvest, Flanders Fields that is movingly beautiful and beautifully dreadful.
In Flanders fields the poppies grow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place, and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
~John McCrae
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