Etz Limon (Lemon Tree)

If foreign dramas are your thing, this is a very good one. The main languages are Hebrew and Arabic so you may need the subtitles, but that certainly does not get in the way of a very good story, told very well.

Hiam Abbass does another wonderful job. Her character self-describes as a lone wolf, and the use of that plays very well in the second half of the movie.

A relative new-comer Rona Lipaz-Michael is excellent here as the Israeli neighbor to Abbass's Palestinian character. Both women are left to deal with things in the wake of men in their lives over which they have no control. After those world's collide both women experience a personal hell.

We are left to wonder a few things about the plot but if you don't think too hard it is still a pretty good story. It is really the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on a very micro level, at least from some point of view. Why would the new Defense Minister move to a home exactly on the border next to a lemon grove his security team deems a real and present danger to national security? Why not live in a much safer location?

Watch this movie with someone who loves gardening AND politics if you can find that combination.