Country: Israel, Germany, France
Year: 2008
Duration: 106'
Salma, a Palestinian widow who lives in a town on the West Bank, discovers that her new next-door-neighbor is the Israeli minister of defense. For security reasons she is ordered to chop down the lemon trees in her garden, her only means of support and her roots to her land, but the woman refuses to give in and takes her case to court. The unexpected solidarity of the minister’s wife and the love of her young lawyer support Salma in a challenge that seems impossible to win.
“The situation in the Middle East is in continuous evolution, even if this statement might not be completely true. Hope, optimism, pessimism, new horizons, revolutions, a new day, the future, the past: these words are used to describe the situation of a place where everything has happened. Like my films The Syrian Bride and Cup Final, in Lemon Tree I made use of an absurd mixture of drama and irony, tragedy and comedy, in short, of that incredible chaos of lights and shadows that marks the history of Israelis and Palestinians."
Biography
film director
Eran Riklis
Eran Riklis (Israel, Jerusalem, 1954) is one of Israel’s most acclaimed film makers and has been working as director, writer and producer for over thirty years. Cup Final (1991), his international breakthrough presented at numerous festivals, was the biggest box office success for an Israeli film in the 90s. Lemon Tree (2008), presented at 26° Torino Film Festival, won of the Audience Award at the Berlin and San Sebastián film festivals. With The Syrian Bride (2004), Riklis received eighteen international awards. In 2010 The Human Resources Manager won five Israeli Academy Awards and the Audience Award in Locarno. He also directed numerous hours of television drama, drama series, documentaries and shorts.
FILMOGRAFIA
Cast
& Credits
regia/director Eran Riklis
sceneggiatura/screenplay Suha Arraf, Eran Riklis
fotografia/cinematography Rainer Klausmann
montaggio/film editing Tova Ascher
scenografia/production design Suha Arraf, Eran Riklis
costumi/costume design Rona Doron
musica/music Habib Shehadeh Hanna
suono/sound Ashi Milo
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters
Hiam Abbass (Salma Zidane), Ali Suliman (Ziad Daud), Rona Lipaz-Michael (Mira Navon), Doron Tavory (il ministro della Difesa/Minister of Defence), Tarik Copty (Abu Hussan), Amos Lavie (il capitano/Captain Jacob), Amnon Wolf (Leibowitz), Smadar Yaaron (Tamara Gera), Ayelet Robinson (Shelly), Liron Baranes (Gillad), Loafi Nofi (Nasser Zidane)
produttori/producers Bettina Brokemper, Antoine De Clermont-Tonnerre, Michael Eckelt, Eran Riklis
produzione/production Eran Riklis Productions, Mact Productions, Riva Film, Heimatfilm
coproduttore/coproducer Ira Riklis
coproduzione/coproduction ARTE France Cinema, ZDF-ARTE, Citrus Film Investors, United King Films, Metro Communications
distribuzione/distribution Teodora Film
vendita all’estero/world sales Films Distribution
sceneggiatura/screenplay Suha Arraf, Eran Riklis
fotografia/cinematography Rainer Klausmann
montaggio/film editing Tova Ascher
scenografia/production design Suha Arraf, Eran Riklis
costumi/costume design Rona Doron
musica/music Habib Shehadeh Hanna
suono/sound Ashi Milo
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters
Hiam Abbass (Salma Zidane), Ali Suliman (Ziad Daud), Rona Lipaz-Michael (Mira Navon), Doron Tavory (il ministro della Difesa/Minister of Defence), Tarik Copty (Abu Hussan), Amos Lavie (il capitano/Captain Jacob), Amnon Wolf (Leibowitz), Smadar Yaaron (Tamara Gera), Ayelet Robinson (Shelly), Liron Baranes (Gillad), Loafi Nofi (Nasser Zidane)
produttori/producers Bettina Brokemper, Antoine De Clermont-Tonnerre, Michael Eckelt, Eran Riklis
produzione/production Eran Riklis Productions, Mact Productions, Riva Film, Heimatfilm
coproduttore/coproducer Ira Riklis
coproduzione/coproduction ARTE France Cinema, ZDF-ARTE, Citrus Film Investors, United King Films, Metro Communications
distribuzione/distribution Teodora Film
vendita all’estero/world sales Films Distribution