On some subtle level, Crescendo could be thought of as the Whiplash of the Middle East. But instead of a jazz instructor verbally abusing his pupils for their musical and personal failings, the musicians in Crescendo mostly verbally abuse each other: since, after all, in the film’s inevitably volatile thematic conceit, Palestinian and Israeli classical musicians are brought together in Tel Aviv to rehearse for a “concert for peace." It’s an event that eventually, for obvious security reasons, has to be relocated to Austria's South Tyrol region, a seeming bastion of neutrality (except, as we find out, for its gangs of neo-Nazis).
The peace concert is a brainchild of German musical director Eduard Sporck (Peter Simonischeck) who still feels the burdensome weight of his family’s Nazi past—his parents were concentration camp“doctors who engaged in horrific bogus medical experiments on Jews—and has altruistically organized this musical collaboration between young Arabs and Israelis with the best intentions. Unfortunately, Sprock doesn’t quite appreciate just how tense things will soon get between this politically polarized orchestra.
In a fairly predictable plot development, amid all the expected inflammatory banter between the two opposing sides, a sort-of-believable romantic relationship blooms between Palestinian clarinetist Omar (Mehdi Meskar) and Israeli French horn player Shira (Eyan Pinkovich). Meanwhile, the rest of the adversarial orchestra members hurl insults like “murderer” and “terrorist” at each other. As you might expect, politics begin to overshadow the music, and Sporck ends up resembling more of a student guidance counselor than a musical conductor.
He knows that if his musicians can’t amicably fraternize on a human level, then they will never gel as a musical unit. Unfortunately, in this case, it takes a (slightly ambiguous) tragedy to finally pull these warring factions together for one last impromptu musical moment. Although there’s plenty to admire about director Dror Zahavi’s unflinching handling of this cinematic tinderbox of emotions, Crescendo ultimately ends on a note of false sentimentality. A strong optional purchase.