Eran Kolirin

Up Next: Middle Eastern Filmmakers

By ALI JAAFAR

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Israeli helmer Kolirin earned critical and commercial plaudits for his debut feature "The Band's Visit" last year. The bittersweet comedy, about an Egyptian military band that gets lost in a remote Israeli town while on the way to perform at a cultural center, deftly side-stepped political didacticism with its humane portrayal of the absurdities of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Kolirin, who is hard at work writing his second

effort, also achieved a childhood dream in July this year when "The Band's Visit" became the first

Israeli film to be screened in Egypt since the two countries signed a peace deal nearly 30 years ago.