Language: Hebrew and Arabic with English Subtitles
Time: 106min
Lemon Tree, a story about a Palestinian widow
(Hiam Abbas) living on the border of Israel trying in earnest to cultivate a living from her lemon tree grove when the Israeli Minister of Defense moves in Next door and upsets her peaceful existence. What was once a serene house overlooking an expanse of lemon trees becomes a military fortress. Ironically, this fortress is not infact to keep terrorists out, as the Israeli secret service insist, but to keep the Minister's wife locked in. A prisoner in her own home. No amount of garden parties and redecorating can shake this fact from the stoic Mira's mind. 24 hour camera surveillance, a fort built to overlook the grove and metal lockdown shutters over the windows. Mira cannot even walk in her garden without being accompanied by an armed militia man. As much as this film is the fight of a Palestinian widow against the government and society, it is also Mira's story of an internal battle against what her husband has become - her own fight against the government and society. Two women, one
battleground, the same opponents and yet throughout the film they hardly say two words to each other.
When the Israeli Defense Minister issues the command to destroy Salma's Lemon tree grove, she enlists the help of a freelance lawyer. A balding, gangling awkward man who falls in love with her stoicism and proud determination. This ill-placed romance is so out of place in the film that it had the audience shrinking back and audibly cringing. What one can say though, is that these things happen. And, they happen (much like in the film) against the will of society. The moral code is that a muslim widow should not remarry or find hope in another man who is half her age. That is the failing of western society... Thus, how dare Riklis put these western values into this
eastern film. The answer is simple, we all need to get off our high moral horses and accept that human beings are indeed just that and, moreover, religion does not dictate what happens in desolate places - society does. This is a garbled detour from the film and the point is that this ill-placed romance between salma and her boy toy lawyer was just that - ill-placed. I did not see the relevance of it to the film. There were quite a few mutterings of 'damn artsy directors putting in weird endings and dirty kisses for no reason at all.'
The driving narrative in the film is: Which side will win the court case? Palestine or Israel? The old lady or the old man? And then, consequentially, does it really matter? By the end of the film it doesn't matter. You feel kinda silly for watching the entire thing to get to that point where you wake up in the dark and scratch your head while emerging into the bright lights of the foyer and finding you're still in the dark.
Thus, we are not concerned with What happened but How does it happen? In this new context of How, we tend to look at the elements within the frame to bulk up our perception of the film: Lighting, cinematography, acting, dialogue, costume, authenticity... the list goes on. And, when the film is thus separated into its constituent elements, we see the beauty in a single shot. The emerging youth of a forgotten widow.
Hiam Abbas, as the forgotten widow, gives a splendid performance standing stoically in front of the mirror in the yellow glow of her gold wedding jewellery. A bit too stoic, perhaps? I felt, at times, that she played towards the camera - that 4th wall effect was broken time and again with her wooden facial expression reminding me that this was infact a film set.
There are a few comedic scenes, regarding the extent of the surveillance, that succeed to spruce up the narrative. On my little voting slip I gave this film an excellent because I really enjoyed it up to the last 10min. It had drama, comedy, a captive na