Hardly a ‘Lemon’

December 5, 2008 - 10:50 AM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: coexistence, General, History and Culture, Life, Movies, Pop Culture 

For those of us who live in the Modiin area, the reality of being surroun

ded by Arab villages is a part of daily life. The 443 Highway, which connects greater metro Tel Aviv with greater metro Jerusalem – Modiin sitting ab

out halfway in between – snakes alongside the Green Line for its main

stretches. I used to live in Jerusalem, though, where the Muslim call to prayer could be heard many times daily. The Sharon region, which stretches north and slightly east of Tel Aviv, is itself adjacent to Samaria, where the bulk of the non-Gazan, non-Galilean Palestinian population is located.

So for much of Israel, the reality of living in a Jewish homeland that’s situated in a Muslim-centric region extends well beyond our news headlines, our military-security efforts as a collective and the diplomacy moves of our politicians. The children of Isaac and the children of Ishmael are neighbors here.

Fictional community Tzur Hasharon, apparently located in the Sharon region, is the setting of Eran Riklis’ recent movie, Lemon Tree (trailer streams here), which serves to juxtapose the public-collective Jewish-Muslim relations with the personal-neighborly ones. Of course, it’s the latter that comes off as more connected to reality in the movie – not such a stretch – when the Israeli defense minister’s wife forges an unlikely friendship with a Muslim neighbor, whose lemon grove ends up in the middle of an international media and diplomacy firestorm.

Riklis’ likewise nuanced 2004 movie The Syrian Bride garnered several international awards following its overseas cinematic distribution run. And now Lemon Tree has joined the stable of local films enjoying critical, box office and statuette-based success outside of Israel.

We at Israelity have our fingers crossed for at least one win for the movie at the European Film Academy’s European Film Awards tomorrow night in Copenhagen. Held somewhere different each year (except every other year, when it always takes place in Berlin), the 2008 European Film Awards have nominated Lemon Tree in two categories: Hiam Abbass for Best Actress, and Suha Arraf and Eran Riklis for Best Screenplay. The latter category impressively includes another Israeli nominee, the beloved animated documentary Waltz with Bashir.

While our hopes are high, The Jerusalem Post’s Hannah Brown points out that The Band’s Visit won Israeli actor Sasson Gabbai a 2007 Best Actor award, which might make more Israeli prizes less likely. We shall see very soon.

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