Film: Lemon Tree
Directed by Eran Riklis
Israel (2008)
Political Drama
10 parts/100 mins
In Hebrew and Arabic with English Subtitles (default)
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You have seen this situation and these images over and over it seems: its breaking news and the national media reports that there is another spark that's been ignited in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Images of bombed out buildings, blackened and deformed cars carpeting the streets, the wailing of ambulances screeching past as in a blur as women are lamenting the deaths of the victims of a recent attack. Both sides call for the other to end the violence and aggression before they can end theirs. The corpses of victims are draped in their nations' emblems and made martyrs. Nothing has changed and we are back to where we started—only at the cost of a few more civilian lives.
Synopsis:
Up-and-coming Eran Riklis mediation on the situation with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict shifts away from these politicized images in the media and focuses not on abstract claims to land and security but, as more recent films have done so, on the ordinary people and the more prosaic and everyday issues resulting from these tensions: A middle-aged Palestinian widow named Salma Zidane, has the misfortune of not merely living in the volatile "Green Zone" -- a kind of no man's land sandwiched in between Israel and the Palestinian-occupied West Bank -- but being situated merely a few hundred yards away from the home of the Israeli defense minister and his wife. Under advisement from the Israeli secret service, the defense minister begins to perceive Salma's lemon grove as a direct threat to the safety of the nation, with its ability to function as a hiding spot for terrorists. Not long after, a court order surfaces, forcing Salma to accept government compensation for the destruction of the grove. She passionately refuses -- explaining that the plot of land and the trees have existed in her family for generations -- and hires a young attorney to take the case all the way to the Israeli Supreme Court if necessary.
Review:
Lemon Tree is not a politically biased film, and therein lies its maturity and wisdom. The Israelis pictured onscreen earn no less sympathy than the Palestinians. Though the main Israeli characters such as Defense Minister fully commit to his country's policies, he projects a warm congeniality, while his wife continually reveals her deep-seated concern about the consequences of her husband's decisions and her innate compassion for the Palestinian women, and even begins to make overtures of friendship with her. These moments carry touching and moving overtones, accentuated by the gentle and intriguing parallels that Riklis sets up between the women's lives. What we have here is the tale of generally kind, decent, and loving people on opposite sides of the political fence who have been thrust into a complicated situation that sets them at enmity with one another.
Riklis also commands attention via the grace of his cinematographic approach; he laces the motion picture with moments of great visual poetry, such as a wondrous sequence where Salma wakes up in her bed, bathed in moonlight, with the shadow of a lemon tree cast against her as its fruits begin to drop to the ground. All told, visual details such as this work in tandem with the director's confident, exceptionally mature treatment of this material, and turn what could have been a routine exercise in political propaganda into a thought-provoking, aesthetically rich chronicle of troubled lives set against the backdrop of a complex and beleaguered region.
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Lemon Tree part 4by alchemistkx4,059 views
@ruthrachel18 What movie were you watching? This woman was not a terrorist. She was just a simple woman like the Jewish woman. All they both wanted was to live in peace.They were willing to coexist.The arab woman was hostage to the state, and so was the Jewish woman in a way. Why should the farmer give up something that she owned for 50 yrs to make someone comfortable? Would a Jewish farmer have been asked the same to make the arabs happy? Everyone is wrong sometimes and No one is always wrong.
rosey312 9 months ago 4
Hiam Abbass is the best! and has lived this life, as a Palestinian/Israeli she can draw from real life! Love you Hiam!
xenafan234 6 months ago 3