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Lemon Tree
Cast & Crew
- Director
- Producer
- ScreenwriterSuha Arraf, Eran Riklis
- Director of photography
- Main Cast
Director's comment
The Middle East is constantly changing although when you really think about it, perhaps it isn't...hope, optimism, pessimism, breakthroughs, new horizons, a new day, the future, the past — all words used on a regular basis to describe the situation in a region that has seen it all. Trees have always been around to witness what mankind has been doing, and although when thinking of this area people tend to think about olive trees, this story is about lemon trees that become a threat to national security, a title that lemon trees are not too used to...When I made THE SYRIAN BRIDE, 1 thought it pretty much contained my view of the situation around me as I came to know and observe it as a filmmaker and as a citizen of Israel and the world. But the fact is that these issues continue to haunt me in many ways and when I wrote the story Salma's war, I couldn't resist it and decided to once again create a film that will go one step ahead with my views of Middle East madness (on all levels) and will possibly be the film to end all films as far as my statement on the matter goes (but never say never...)
Now this may sound a bit ambitious but it's not really as Lemon Tree is a simple story about people who find themselves fighting over matters that could have been resolved quite easily if they would just listen to each other. But simple expectations are a big step as we have seen in so many parts of the world and the heat in this particular region, not to mention the burden of history, blood, religion and other eternal matters do not help make things just a bit easier...
But, with all due respect to the above, this is really a film about solitude as it is reflected in the lives of two women — Salma on the Palestinian side and Mira, the Defence Minister's wife, on the Israeli one, and I guess that is what really drew me to it as well as all the other characters involved who somehow represent so many issues and subjects but all of them suffer from a kind of loneliness which is part of their lives on a personal and national level.
And not unlike my approach in THE SYRIAN BRIDE and CUP FINAL, I take to the absurd mix of humour and drama, tragedy and comedy (a bit anyway...), and the impossible chaos that comprises the colourful yet very dark story of Israelis and Palestinians.
Cast & Crew
Eran RiklisBettina Brokemper , Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre, Michael Eckelt, Eran Riklis
Suha Arraf, Eran Riklis
Rainer Klausmann
Hiam Abbass (Salma Zidane), Ali Suliman (Ziad Daud)
