Lemon Tree

No screener was available for Lemon Tree (2008), and while I thought I had seen it before, it’s apparent that I must have merely seen something like it, since I didn’t review it when it played here theatrically in 2009. (It is not the sort of thing I’d be likely to seek out on my own.) Therefore, the best I can do is direct you to Justin Souther’s original review: www.mountainx.com/movies/review/lemon_tree. Here’s an excerpt for print readers: “The film follows Salma (Hiam Abbass, The Visitor), a Palestinian woman who lives alone. Salma’s son is in the U.S. washing dishes and her husband is deceased. Despite her lemon grove not being much of a moneymaker, her livelihood depends on it. Nonetheless, Salma is, surprisingly, not evidently disconcerted when her new neighbor, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Navon (Doron Tavory), and the Israeli secret service decide that the grove must be chopped down for national security reasons (terrorists could gather intelligence or chuck grenades from the cover of the lemon trees). Rejecting the Israeli government’s offers of compensation, Salma instead hires a local lawyer named Ziad (Ali Suliman, The Kingdom) who takes her case to the Supreme Court. What was for Salma a simple case of justice soon becomes a larger issue exemplifying the Israel/Palestine conflict.”