The Middle East conflict narrowed down to the arena of a half-century-old lemon grove that a Palestinian widow has inherited from her father and that borders the new residence of the Israeli Defense Minister. The fruit was there first, and the minister moved in next door, and the Secret Service sees in the dense foliage “a real and imminent threat” and orders the grove to be expropriated and uprooted. An international incident percolates. The small, and more importantly the nonviolent, scale of action allows for detachment as well as drollery. No one on either side is made ridiculous, which no doubt holds down the humor but not the absurdity. (See, for instance, the early-morning wonder of a watchtower hovering in the air above the grove and dropping into place by crane.) While the film is Israeli in origin, it bends over backwards to be fair and balanced, not in the sense of Fox News but in the sense of Webster’s. It perhaps bends so far as to lose its balance. The sympathy, seemingly by its own gyroscope, tilts a little toward the Palestinian, if for no other reason than that she’s played by Hiam Abbass, whom you might remember as the mother of the detained drummer in The Visitor. If you do, you’ll especially remember her dignity. With Ali Suliman, Rona Lipaz-Michael, Doron Tavory; directed by Eran Riklis. (2008) — Duncan Shepherd
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