SnoopyStyle Salma Zidane is a widow scrapping by a living from her grove of lemon trees in the West Bank that was inherited from her father. The Israeli Defense Minister Navon and his wife move in next door. The Secret Service wants to cut down the trees but Salma resists. She gets young lawyer Ziad Daud to take the case. Mrs. Navon is sympathetic but the military bureaucracy marches on. It becomes a media cause as the case rises to the Supreme Court.This is an anti-wall movie. The two female leads are very compelling. There are missing scenes that would have propelled this to the next level. The movie is building up to a meeting between the ladies but the security guard stops Mrs. Navon. That would have been a very compelling scene but the movie choose to go another way. There is also a bombing but the movie chooses not to show it. I would rather not have a bombing at all. These two women are great characters and this is an almost great movie.

jackasstrange Lemon Tree is a very good small film. I am not familiar with Israeli & Palestinian culture further than what is told everyday on the news and all. Is a surprisingly good film. It uses various filmmaking techniques to make the story as thematic as possible. The predominant green and light-green colors in the art direction's palette scheme, for example - remind us the color of the lemon. The story itself can be seen as an allegory to the conflicts between Palestinians and Israeli. They both wants different things from a same tree, and they fight until no tomorrow to 'make their wishes come true'. Even a perhaps "small thing' can turn into a national problem. Also, the character development is just fine, and so is the acting. It goes overly dramatic a little bit, but nothing than can diminishes the qualities of the film.

robinakaaly This was a real horror story, thankfully with no gore, but more chilling that those that do. Set in the Green Line, a Palestinian widow tends her inherited lemon grove with the help of an old neighbour. Her children have left home, the son working an a restaurant in Washington. The Israeli Defence Minister buys a house the other side of the chainlink fence marking the green line. He has a pleasant view over the lemon grove. However, security regard the grove as a security threat and order it to be cut down. The woman is helpless against the Israeli army, and the Minister defends the decision on grounds of having to follow security advice. The gutless Palestinian community tell the widow not to bother to fight the system, but not to accept compensation either: Palestinians don't. A young lawyer agrees to help, and they become friendly as the case progresses through the system. However, the elders of the community tell the widow that she is dishonouring her late husband's name, as is her son by being in America. A razor wire fence is put up with a goon tower, and then another fence to cut the widow off from the trees, which begin to wither and die. Meanwhile the Minister has an affair with his secretary, while his wife sits imprisoned at home with only the secret service for company. Any attempt she makes to contact the widow is quickly scuppered, and it is made clear that such attempts will damage her husband's career. Finally the Supreme Court decides that only half the trees must be grubbed out, the other half being cut back to their roots. Of course, in the end nobody wins: the Minister and his wife break up, the widow moves out, and the Minister is faced with a huge security wall at the bottom of his garden hiding the view of the devastated grove. It was a film with realism oozing out of it, and one out of which nobody, except the woman, emerged with any credit. A typical example of the situation was when the authorities write to the widow to say she must move: their letter is in Hebrew, and she only speaks Arabic. This was high order film making.The legal position was interesting: at one stage the lawyer cites international conventions (I forget which) which say that occupying forces should not damage private property. The Israeli military counsel counter by saying that there is a get-out for urgent military necessity. It struck me that as the Minister had moved into the house knowing the grove was there, he could hardly claim urgent military necessity to remove it. The lawyer also didn't note that whilst the grove had been there fifty years, there was no guarantee how long the Minister intended to stay in his property.

aFrenchparadox It's about dignity and hope in individuals. About a woman standing up for her rights and on the path freeing herself from social conventions. About another woman learning from simply observing the first one standing up to stand up too (though mostly for herself). About the fact that a nation can't be considered as having an unique position and that reality is always more subtle. Hence about the fact that hope can come from individuals who might change their nation, step by step (I am far too much an utopist on this one, given the outcome of the film). It's also (obvioulsy given the plot) about politics, and quite especially about public relations in politics. Especially also about how individual lives serve political interests, regardless of how these lives could evolve. The outcome doesn't reach the expectations you build watching the film, so it's finally also about how the Middle-East conflict is not ready to be solved, at least not within a short time. At last Hiam Abbass, playing the main character, is just amazing.