Drama
LEMON TREE
עץ לימון
About the film
Lemon Tree is a poignant and deeply human drama from Eran Riklis that uses a simple yet revealing story to illuminate the complexities of life on the Israeli-Palestinian border. The film centers on Salma, a Palestinian widow whose peaceful existence tending her family’s lush lemon grove is shattered when the Israeli Defense Minister moves into a fortified home right next door and declares her trees a security threat.
Refusing to surrender her heritage, Salma launches a courageous legal fight — taking her case all the way to the Israeli Supreme Court — with the help of a young lawyer and unexpected sympathy from the minister’s own lonely wife. Through rich performances and Riklis’s finely calibrated storytelling, Lemon Tree reveals how courage, empathy and quiet resistance can flourish even amid deep political divides, turning a fight over fruit trees into a resonant human drama.
CAST AND CREW
year: 2008 duration: 106 MIN language: ARABIC, HEBREW ,WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES director: ERAN RIKLIS writers: ERAN RIKLIS SUHA ARRAF prodocers: BETTINA BROKEMPER, ANTOINE DE CLERMONT-TONNERRE, MICHAEL ECKELT, ERAN RIKLIS cast: HIAM ABBASS, ALI SULIMAN, RONA LIPAZ-MICHAEL, DORON DAVORY
MEET THE director
Eran Riklis is one of Israel’s most dynamic and internationally celebrated directors, known for emotionally powerful films like Lemon Tree and The Syrian Bride. His latest work, Reading Lolita in Tehran, adapts Azar Nafisi’s bestselling memoir into a bold, festival‑acclaimed drama about courage, literature, and women’s resilience under oppression, bringing his signature blend of heart and social insight to global audiences.
