Lemon Tree

The New York Times Stephen Holden

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

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?

Variety Derek Elley

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

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.

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.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The sensuousness of Lemon Tree is its glory.

San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Empire David Parkinson

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

Village Voice Nicolas Rapold

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