A Palestinian widow receives a letter in Hebrew, a language she cant read, ordering the destruction of her ancestral lemon grove. Why? Israel's tough-talking defense minister and his wife moved into the big new house across the road and the secret service deems the grove a security threat, a potential nesting place for terrorists.
Salma, the much-aggrieved widow, is the protagonist of Lemon Tree, a film by Israeli director Eran Riklis (TheSyrian Bride), out now on DVD. Hiam Abbass (best known to American audiences for The Visitor) won Best Actress in the 2008 Asia Pacific Screen Awards for her fiercely dignified performance as a woman intimately familiar with sadness even before the defense minister moved in. With the help of a Palestinian lawyer who takes a shine to her, she appeals the destruction of her grove, which only seems to bring more problems on her head.
Lemon Tree is a powerful and revealing drama that puts human faces on many issues, especially the ugly security walls separating Jews from Arabs, the indignity of life under military occupation, the persistent threat of terrorism and the ineffectuality of the Palestinian Authority. The defense ministers wife (Rona Lipaz-Michael) bucks the system, a little. She is appalled at cutting down the scenic lemon grove, and has sympathy for Salmas plight. Whether her concern will be enough to curb injustice is the compelling theme in a film that refuses to play like a Hollywood story.
