Another Movie Guide

Independent Film Hits Close to Home

Lemon Tree tells the touching story of a Palestinian women who is widowed and her new neighbors the Israeli minister of defense and his wife and how their conflict over a grove of lemon trees creates discord for the two women. This is an emotional film that mirrors the conflict of the nations of Israel and Palestine by bring the differences between the Arabs and Israelis to a very personal level.

Actress Hiam Abbass takes on the role of Salma Zidane a 45 year old widow living alone in a small Palestinian village on the West Bank. After her new neighbor builds a house adjacent to her land the Israeli minister of defenses security team deem a grove of lemon trees a risk to the safety of her neighbor and high ranking government official. The threat of assassins hiding in the grove of trees waiting to kill the minister raises the question of security for the Israeli official as his security team orders the demolition of any building that can be used to harbor enemy soldiers.

After hiring a lawyer to help her fight to protect the grove of lemon trees that have been on the family land for generations. As the conflict unravels the wife of the Israeli minister begins to feel a kinship to her Palestinian neighbor as she is left alone while her husband tends to his political career. A love story evolves between the widow and her lawyer creating a scandal among the Palestinian neighbors that are shocked by the affair between the 45 year old widow and her attorney that is ten years younger than her. While the war over the lemon grove rages on the ministers wife and the widow begin to see eye to eye on the similarities in their lives amid the conflict of the lemon trees and the politically charged differences in the Israeli and Palestinian governments.

The film which was released in April of 2009 is receiving critical acclaim at festivals throughout the world and is received top honors at the Berlin Film Festival for the portrayal of the conflict in the middle east. The brainchild of writer and director Eran Riklis his moving film was inspired by the tensions that exist between the Israelis and Palestinians and how a small matter of personal difference reflects the spectrum of two peoples that are struggling to get along with each other. A Jew himself the writer enlisted the aid of his cousin Ira Riklis to co produce the film and tell the story that for the cousins is all too real.

This article is about Ira-Riklis (http://www.irariklis.com/) who is the principal of Sutherland Capital Management, Inc., a private holding company primarily involved in the home-security market based in New York City. Billings Farnsworth is a freelance writer.