Lemon Tree

The phrase ‘neighbourhood watch’ assumes a whole new meaning when you’re a Palestinian widow and the Israeli defence minister moves in next door. Popping over the Green Line border to borrow some sugar isn’t really on the cards. And anyway, doubtless it would require rather more than that to neutralise the bitter relations between Salma (Hiam Abbass) and the minister’s military entourage, who promptly announce plans to bulldoze over her modest lemon grove (her sole source of income), dubbing it “an absolute and immediate military necessity”.

To say that Lemon Tree is based on a true story is largely redundant. It’s so painfully familiar and functions as such a neat metaphor for the Israeli-Palestine situation that one is almost overcome by weary resignation before the opening credits are over.

While plainly exposing the insanity of Israeli security measures and the horrific injustices they result in, Lemon Tree, as with Riklis’ best-known features, Cup Final and The Syrian Bride, feels like a lesson in textbook even-handedness. So, Abbass’ affecting performance is mirrored by the defence minister’s wife Mira (Rona Lipaz-Michael), who observes Salma’s plight across the fence and grows in sympathy with her attempt to challenge the military order through the Israeli courts. Both are lonely women whose children have fled the nest, and the film is at its most interesting in its sensitive study of this juncture of women’s lives (which would make a fine subject in its own right). One particularly moving moment sees Salma, unexpectedly enlivened by a budding romance with her raffish young lawyer Ziad (Ali Suliman), retrieve her long-buried finery from feather pillow stuffing.

It’s a shame, then, that the uneven tone, if not the plot, sometimes descends into an almost Erin Brokovich-style woman-against-the-system drama – despite Ziad’s heartfelt protestation that “only American movies have happy endings.”

Riklis should be praised for bringing together a cast and crew of mixed ethnicity, yet his relentless quest to universalise risks removes the film’s pith. It opens with an artfully shot sequence of lemon pickling, charmingly overlaid with the lyrics of the Peter, Paul & Mary song: “Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet, but the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.” Riklis’ film, however well intentioned and presented, is similarly hard to swallow.

Sophie Ivan

Anticipation:

Scooped the Audience Award at the Berlinale so looks promising.

Enjoyment:

Bittersweet.

In Retrospect:

Leaves a bad aftertaste.