The Ancaster Film Fest will present the acclaimed award winning film The Band's Visit (in English, Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles) on Monday, May 5 at Ancaster Silver City. It will screen at 4 p.m. with the box office opening at 3:15 p.m. and at 7:15 p.m. with the box office opening at 6:15 p.m.

The Band's Visit, which screened to popular acclaim at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival and has won numerous awards at various film festivals, is an inspiring story of cross-cultural rapprochement and reconciliation set in the most unlikely of locales. In director Eran Kolirin's debut feature, a small, uniformed Egyptian police band becomes lost in rural Israel on their way to performing at a concert. They unexpectedly encounter not only tensions and friendships with the townspeople who take them in for the night, but valuable lessons as well.

The Band's Visit is good-natured and warm while avoiding sentimentality. Director/Writer Eran Kolirin elicits wonderful performances from his ensemble cast in this meticulously observed and understated comedy. Though set not long ago, the film's tone is infused with a wistful nostalgia for the director's childhood, when Egyptian movies and the Israel Broadcasting Authority's orchestra performances were shown side by side on Israeli national television. While refusing to glorify the past, Kolirin clearly yearns for a less mediated time when simpler pleasures - a shared meal, a good tune, an open door - had the potential to bring people together.

The Band's Visit won the Un Certain Regard award at Cannes as well as numerous other awards including the Audience Awards at the Munich, Warsaw, Copenhagen and Sarajevo Film Festivals and Best Foreign Language Film at the Independent Spirit Awards.

Proceeds from these screenings will go to charity. The proceeds of $1200 from our previous screening date was given to the Bridge Program: From Prison to Community.

Non members pay $9 at the 4 p.m. show and $10 at the 7:15 p.m. show. For more information on the Ancaster Film Fest visit www.ancasterfilmfest.ca or call 905-648-2277.