Citric acid

Etz limon (Lemon tree)

Crit

A simple story: a Palestinian widow whose livelihood comes exclusively from her lemon grove, protests the order of the Israeli secret service to uproot the trees when the new minister of defense moves in next door and just across the border.

How, she and her lawyer demand, can a grove cultivated without incident by her late husband's family for 50 years be such a threat? But of course for a state forced to live since its inception in a state of siege, nothing is simple: experience has taught the Israelis that anything that provides cover is a threat, so there is no satisfactory room for compromise.

A simple story; too simple. I'm sure the filmmakers believed themselves to be presenting a balanced view, but they stack the deck in favor of the widow, played by Hiam Abbass, who, as in The Visitor, embodies righteous determination in the face of injustice, and also displays stealth sensuality. I'm sympathetic to the Palestinian plight and distinctly unsympathetic to hypocritical, cryptohawkish Israeli bureaucrats like the one played by Doron Tavory here, but I'm suspicious of any Middle East story, including real life, with heroes and villains so clearly cast. Oh, and lest we fail to get it, we are from time to time treated to the lessons in logic a guard plays during his hours in the watchtower: logic has never been so surreal.

Still, if I don't believe in simplicity, I'm not cynical about citrus groves: much of the film is gorgeous. Like it says in the song, I guess: it's very pretty, but be careful about swallowing.