badelf
Lemon Tree: The Fork in the Road We Didn't Take
"Lemon Tree" must be understood in its 2008 context, when the Israeli-Palestinian conflict existed at a different temperature than today. Both sides were slightly more tentative, and the possibility of human connection across the divide felt less remote. Viewed now, the film plays as a fork in the road, a moment when empathy might have prevailed over the machinery of occupation. That it didn't, makes "Lemon Tree" both hopeful and heartbreaking.
Director Eran Riklis takes a measured approach, perhaps too measured. The screenplay could have been bolder, pushing either Salma or the Defense Minister's wife to reach out more courageously across the wall that separates them. Still, what restra...