Israel's
2008 flick LEMON TREE is kind of the opposite of CARAMEL – where politics took
a backseat in CARAMEL in favor of the private lives of individuals, they're
front and center here. This isn't necessarily a bad thing – I'm not one of
those "Keep politics out of it" types. But, subtlety is nice, and
while LEMON TREE is a good film, there is a better film buried inside of it,
where the central message ("Can't we all just get along?") is not
hammered home but told more quietly.
The
movie tells the story of a Palestinian widow (Hiam Abbass) whose children have
all moved out of the house. She spends her lonely hours tending the lemon grove
on her property, as her family has done for generations. It is apparently her
only source of income, and that is disrupted when the Israeli defense minister
(Doron Tavory) moves in next door.
The
defense minister's home is right on the border between Israel and the West
Bank, and the lemon grove is viewed as a safety hazard – after all, there could
be terrorists in them thar trees. A fence and watch tower is erected, and
eventually the government wants to tear the grove down. The widow appeals. A
legal battle ensues.
You
might be wondering where the romance is here, and there are two relationships
that form throughout the movie. The first and more conventional is between the
widow and the lawyer she hires (Ali Suliman). The second, and more interesting,
is a less literal relationship that forms between the widow and the defense
minister's wife (Rona Lipaz-Michael).
The
defense minister's wife is also lonely, in her own way, unsatisfied by the role
she plays in politics and diplomacy and isolated in her big, new house. As she
looks down from the windows at the lemon grove she can't help but feel for the
widow on the other side of the fence who is fighting against her husband. She
begins to identify with the widow, and disagree with her husband.
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