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Lemon Tree

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 16 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 2 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by:
Suha Arraf
Eran Riklis
Directed by: Eran Riklis
Release Date:
Theatrical: April 17, 2009
DVD: November 3, 2009
Running Time: 106 minutes, Color
Origin: Israel | Germany | France
Language(s): Arabic | Hebrew | French | English
Summary
RATING: Not Rated
Starring Hiam Abbass, Ali Suliman, Danny Leshman, Rona Lipaz-Michael, Tarik Kopty, Amos Lavi, and Amnon Wolf
Lemon Tree is Eran Riklis' engaging human drama of one woman's struggle to preserve her way of life in the midst of political turmoil. The wonderful Hiam Abbass is Salma, a Palestinian widow who earns her living tending to her late father's lemon grove. When an Israeli government minister moves next door and declares the grove a potential security threat, Salma struggles to defend her peaceful livelihood. Personal drama gives way to political controversies as Salma forms an unexpected bond with the minister's lonely wife, and takes her protest - with the help of her young lawyer - all the way to the Israeli Supreme Court. (IFC Films)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: The Syrian Bride
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The New York Times Stephen Holden
A wrenching, richly layered feminist allegory as well as a geopolitical one.
Read Full Review >New York Post V.A. Musetto
You know a performance has to be special when a Palestinian wins Israel's version of the Best Actress Oscar. But why should politics detract from a stunning performance?
Read Full Review >Variety Derek Elley
The rare ability to make intelligent, entertaining cinema from hot-button current issues is beautifully illustrated by Lemon Tree.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
Something like a cross between a torn-from-the-headlines docudrama, a Middle East conflict rendered in miniature and Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard," this latest film from the terrific Israeli director Eran Riklis revolves around the amazing lead performance of Palestinian-French actress Hiam Abbass.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
The most remarkable aspect of Lemon Tree, however, and the one that's most likely to land this film on many year-end Best Foreign Film lists, is Abbass' devastating and marvelously restrained performance.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego
The story, based on a real incident, may be simplistic, but that's the nature of fables.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Kate Taylor
Often refuses to adhere to the formula, sometimes offering a tantalizing ambiguity, other times aspiring to a more complex drama it cannot entirely deliver.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
Referencing the popular song, the movie's title reminds us that "the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat." That, in a rind, is Riklis's deeply frustrated view of his country's stalemate, but you can only take a metaphor so far before it falters in the face of endless geopolitical complexity.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis' Lemon Tree is a lively deadpan comedy which, like his prior film "The Syrian Bride," satirizes Israel's bureaucrats while remaining sympathetic to citizens who live within and adjacent to Israel's disputed borders.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Philip Kennicott
Riklis has made a powerful film, but can a powerful film change anything about the fatalistic culture of powerlessness that is felt throughout Palestine and Israel? The irony of Lemon Tree is that what it achieves adds, in the end, to the sense that nothing can unravel this mess.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Ray Bennett
The cast is uniformly fine, but Abbass and Lipaz-Michael shine as two women who bond in the fear that the best of their lives is over and neither of them is happy with what the future holds.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Robert Abele
Lemon Tree is in its best moments a sober-hearted take on the righteous blowback from whittled-away souls, and a movie that invariably rights itself with each return to the beautifully steely gaze of Abbass.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray
This story--or stories like it--has been told and re-told too often. Lemon Tree works best when Riklis cuts out the predictable melodrama and trusts the fertility of his central metaphor.
Read Full Review >Empire David Parkinson
A positive and personal look at the Israel/ Palestine divide through the quest of one woman to maintain her own property.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Nicolas Rapold
Promising parallels abound (not least between the two women's burdens), but the direction is stubbornly flat-footed.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
