Anyone who saw The Visitor earlier this year will have noticed the actress Hiam Abbass. There’s a restrained dignity and intelligence she brings to a role that quietly commands attention. In Lemon Tree, Abbass takes a pivotal central role written for her by Israeli writer/director Eran Riklis after the pair collaborated on his previous film The Syrian Bride. She plays Salma Zidane, a Palestinian widow, with the same understated gravitas that dominated The Visitor.

Proud but struggling Salma finds her family lemon grove threatened with destruction because of the security risk it poses to the Israeli Defence Minister’s new villa. Rather than stand back and watch it being uprooted, Salma decides to take the matter to the Israeli High Court. Accompanying her is an ambitious young lawyer, Ziad Daud (Ali Suliman), who in the film’s main misstep, becomes increasingly romantically attached to Salma.

It’s a film rich with symbolism, from the fortified fence that separates Salma from much of her land to the lemons and the disputed earth that grows them. But while this is a political film the most interesting element is the human story and the wordless, respectful connection that grows between two women – Salma and the lonely younger wife of the Israeli minister – on opposite sides of the fence.

PG, 106 minutes

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