Lemon Tree

By Willie Krischke – July 9, 2009

The brilliant and moving Israeli movie “Lemon Tree” begins with a colossal mistake.   The new Israeli Defense Minister (Doron Tavory) moves to a new house right on the line that separates Israel from the Palestinian West Bank.   And if that wasn’t bad enough, right across the fence is a lemon grove that belongs to a dignified Palestinian widow.   As  Tavory and his wife are moving in, his bodyguard notes that the lemon grove presents a security risk, as terrorists or snipers could easily hide in it and quickly escape.   You’d think that would be the kind of thing a Defense Minister might consider before signing the papers on a new house.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_WXQ7Kmzz0[/youtube]

The widow is Hiam Abass, and if you never seen her act (in “The Visitor,”  ”Munich,” or “The Nativity Story,”) then you owe it to yourself to see this movie just to learn who she is.   She is a marvel of strength and grief, determination and dignity.   The lemon grove has been in her family for generations; it is more than her livelihood, it is her life.   Her relationship to the land is integral to her relationship to her community, to her past, and to identity as a woman and a widow.

So naturally, when Tavory offers to compensate her for the trees he intends to cut down, she refuses.  Except that she can’t really refuse, because she’s just a poor widow and he’s the Defense Minister.   His men put a fence around her trees and build a guard tower to keep her out.   (It’s a nice touch that the young guard sits in the tower and preps for a test by listening to logic problems; it’s precisely this kind of reasoning that will never solve the conflict between the widow and the Minister, or, for that matter between Palestine and Israel.)  Meanwhile, the trees go uncared for and begin to die.

Abass appeals to the court, and then a higher court.   She hires a lawyer who is very interested in her, but mostly interested in how the case can advance his career.   The wife of the Defense Minister gets angry at her husband, but does nothing to help the poor widow, though it seems she would certainly have the power to do so.   (I think she is supposed to be a sympathetic character, setting up a dichotomy of compassionate and powerless females and ambitious, heartless males, but I didn’t buy it.)  The press gets involved, much to the chagrin of the Defense Minister, who keeps insisting that he’s sorry, but he has no choice  but to cut down the lemon trees.   It is infuriating that he never considers moving, never contemplates a solution that would cost him anything.   He is rich and powerful, and that means he can solve his problems at the expense of the poor and marginalized.

Though it is based on a true story, “Lemon Tree” functions more as a parable than as a realistic story or depiction of the situation in Israel, which is obviously more complicated.   But that need not be a detraction from its power.   We need parables, and director Eran Riklis has a good sense of what to outline, what to pass over, and how to tell a story that will have a universal feel to it.   I was reminded of many things while watching “Lemon Tree,” but perhaps most notably of the Parable of the Persistent Widow (Luke 18) and of the way Native peoples have been treated by the U.S. government.   At the end, the Israeli Court has reached a compromise that they think successfully resolves the issue.   Half of Abass’s trees are pruned down to nubs, and a giant wall is built between her house and Tavory’s.   As she walks along the stumps that used to be her lemon trees, I thought of Native Americans on their reservations.  The solution does nothing more than assuage the guilt felt by the party in power.   It is not a compromise.

Recommended

• if you enjoy movies that play like parables.
• if you are interested in social justice issues, but are tired of watching documentaries.
• if you’ve never seen Hiam Abass.  Or even if you have.

Not Recommended

• if you get frustrated with movies that simplify complex issues to make a point that may not even apply to the current situation.
• if you are rabidly, fervently pro-Israel and can’t abide anyone saying or suggesting anything bad about God’s People.
• if you need happy endings.