Israel @ 60. The Lemon Tree.

Gorgeous, tasty cheese plates (catered by Zabar's!); good wines, red and white; happy people mixing and chatting. It was all quite delightful during Wednesday night's reception for the opening of the Film Society of Lincoln Center's week-long Israel @ 60 series, in collaboration with The Jewish Museum and the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan. 15 films will be shown, generally twice each. Of course, the list is a fine one, and (of course) what was not included seems as pointed as what has been: Nothing by Eytan Fox (Yossi & Jagger, Walk on Water, The Bubble)? Why Ra'anan Alexandrowicz's interesting and thoughtful The Inner Tour rather than his amazing (and evidently, in some circles, quite anger-provoking) James' Journey to Jerusalem? Still, the series offers the great Late Marriage by Dover Koshashvili, Joseph Cedar's inquisitive Campfire, Karen Yedaya's difficult Or (My Treasure) and Giddi Dar's too-cute-for-my-taste Ushpizin, among others.

Maybe it's too easy for a non-Jew to ask the following question, but hasn't any celebration of Israel got to be a double-edged sword? There's so much to be thankful for and so much over which to despair. One of the things I love most about Israeli filmmakers is that they ask this question, too - each in his/her own way, over and over again. Instead of celebrating, they seem to pin their state to the wall and then question, question, question. Their films resound, and last night's American premier of Eran Riklis's The Lemon Tree continues the resonance.

Riklis himself was on hand to introduce the movie and for a Q&A afterwards. He made a splendid host: genuinely self-effacing, very easy to question and always quick and honest with his comebacks. He seemed, in fact, very similar to his movie: full of irony, love, sadness, anger, fear, joy - the works - and yet so low-key about it all. One of the first things Riklis told us was that he is often asked how films such as his, which are usually critical, or at least questioning of Israeli policies, are allowed to be made. The director made it clear that there is simply no film censorship in Israel. Period.

Audience questions about The Lemon Tree were many and interesting - everything from the process of collaboration (Riklis evidently directed and co-wrote), to the meaning of various moments in the film and how it was to work with the wonderful Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass, whom he earlier used in his hit film The Syrian Bride. Due to be released theatrically later this year by the more-adventurous-than-most distributor IFC, the FSLC was granted this one-time, not-open-to-the-public screening of The Lemon Tree, as its post-reception attraction. A thoughtful, realistic and fair film, it proved a very good choice for the "celebration."

The Lemon Tree is based on an actual incident that happened in Israel not that long ago. It's been jiggered for effect, but not in the way that so many mainstream movies seem re-imagined to make "winners" of their protagonists (and losers of the audience). When the Israeli Defense Minister moves in next to a Palestinian widow, whose lemon grove, the minister's security forces decide, poses a threat, the grove must be destroyed. Legal battle stations are assumed, and the gears of "justice" begin to grind. But it is the personal side of things that prove most interesting: the widow (played by Abbass) and her lawyer (Ali Suliman from Syrian Bride and Paradise Now), the Minister (Doron Tavory) and his increasingly estranged wife (Rona Lipaz-Michael).

The movie shifts from Israel to America and back, from the law courts to the lemon grove, from soldiers on duty to reporters at work, always capturing the moment of interest in an understated manner. Even the one scene you might call overstated (a kiss during which the screen literally lights up) is so full of conflicting possibilities (Is this moment fantasy? Did the sun just come out?) that, oddly enough, it enriches the movie rather than detracts from it. And without overtly mentioning such hot-button terms such as "fundamentalism," "feminism" or "state power," the movie forces us to think about all of these, along with others we might prefer to forego.

When it was released in Israel this past March, the director explained, The Lemon Tree was a commercial failure. Thankfully, it has been more successful in Europe. It is not difficult to understand why: The film captures, about as well as possible, both sides of the circumstances of this tiny and relatively unimportant (in the whole scheme of things) event. And it offers but the smallest hope for either side. Not a crowd pleaser, certainly - but in its manner, truthful. I hold out not much greater hope for its American release. Yet the fact that it will appear here theatrically (and later, I expect, on DVD) is good news for all of us willing to keep wrestling with the Israel/Palestine problem and hoping against hope for progress via small increments. I'd call The Lemon Tree one of these.

Posted by dwhudson at May 31, 2008 8:04 AM