Lemon Tree

Lemon Tree

106 Minutes






What a treat it is to watch a smart film -- every beautiful minute of it. Suha Arraf, a Palestinian-Israeli, wrote a powerful story that brings the Middle East trauma to a personal level, a story about four people who are forced to weigh choice, defiance, courage, walls of demarcation and where it is necessary to draw the line.

The first line of conflict is the green border between Israel and the occupied Territories of the West Bank. On one side lives Salma Zidane (Hiam Abbass), a beautiful and meek 45-year old widow whose subsistence is dependent on her lemon grove planted by her deceased father. When the new Israeli Minister of Defense Navon (Doron Tavory) builds a house on the other side of the border next to the lemon grove, his security detail declares the grove to be a hazard that will hide terrorists. They notify Salma that the lemon trees will be uprooted and proceed to build a chain link wall around the grove to prevent her, her gardener and any terrorists from entering. Devastated by the news, Salma concludes that it is important to challenge this disruption of her life. She is deeply pained by the personal loss and is forced to suffer the security guards who trample through her grove and are letting it die.

Salma's son works in the United States and is not particularly sympathetic to his mother's situation. She turns, instead, to a lawyer, Ziad Daud (Ali Suliman) to defend her fight to keep the grove. Not a particularly successful lawyer, Ziad weighs his exposure to ridicule and failure against the honest plight of an attractive, but older, woman. Ziad decides to dive in, soon discovering that he is falling in love with this courageous woman, and she with him. But every culture has its own borders where rules of propriety are not expected to be broken. In Palestine, widows are not free to fall in love again, especially with younger men. While all this turmoil unfolds, Navon's wife, Mira (Rona Lipaz-Michael) is trying grapple with becoming a public wife, her husband's possible infidelities and her empathy with Salma's situation. Like two toddlers who, without words, size each other up for the first time, Salma and Mira communicate their troubles, sympathy and respect through prolonged stares.

As movie observers, we have the ability to be armchair quarterbacks. Without the emotional attachment of the characters, it is quite easy for us to view the whole scene and we think we know what is best for everyone. In real life, we do this with our friends and families. Who better to determine the logic of the situation and solve the issues than us? And while all the Lemon Tree characters are dealing with their dilemmas, a watchtower soldier studies for school by listening to logic and deduction puzzles. A loud but droning, inanimate voice from the sky queries "If A equals B, and B equals C, then A equals C." As Lemon Tree continues, the logic puzzles become more complex, not unlike the puzzling problems on the ground.

Director Eran Riklis brilliantly peppered this drama with enough humor to relieve the tension. The stern photo of Salma's deceased husband hangs on a wall judging all who enter. He also chose the perfect opening song, which, of course, says it all -- "Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet/ But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat," made popular in 1962 by Peter, Paul & Mary. Like the response by everyone who drank Salma's lemonade, this this film is "tasty." Actually- more than that.

by Jane Hruska