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Lemon Tree

EMAILPRINTIFC Films

Lemon Tree reviews
74
9.0 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 16 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 2 votes
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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)

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...

90

The New York Times Stephen Holden

A wrenching, richly layered feminist allegory as well as a geopolitical one.

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88

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?

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80

Variety Derek Elley

The rare ability to make intelligent, entertaining cinema from hot-button current issues is beautifully illustrated by Lemon Tree.

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80

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.

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78

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.

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75

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The sensuousness of Lemon Tree is its glory.

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75

San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego

The story, based on a real incident, may be simplistic, but that's the nature of fables.

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75

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.

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75

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.

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75

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.

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70

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.

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70

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.

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70

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.

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67

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.

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60

Empire David Parkinson

A positive and personal look at the Israel/ Palestine divide through the quest of one woman to maintain her own property.

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50

Village Voice Nicolas Rapold

Promising parallels abound (not least between the two women's burdens), but the direction is stubbornly flat-footed.

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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.

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