The Lemon Tree

Hey All,

Soo just got done watching The Lemon Tree for Egyptian film. It was short and interesting...sort of.

The film was directed by Viola Shafik - the woman who's books we're supposed to be reading for the course.

The film take the story of The Lemon Tree written by Ibrahim Shokrallah and applies it to the writer's family living in the Middle East at a time of political unrest.

In the story, a little boy tells the story of his family's lemon tree that sits out in the garden. The family practically worships the tree. They love to watch the lemons grow and ripen; they like the smell of the lemons wafting through their house on breezy days, and the tree provides a comfortable shady spot to sit when the sun gets too hot. One day, the boy's father decides to chop down the tree to make way for an expansion to the house - the family would use the extra rooms to generate more income. This decision, of course, upsets the entire family, but the father does it anyway. The boy then explains the fear and anxiety he feels about his father's decision. While it may be just a tree to everyone outside the family, the boy explains that not having the tree there is like living in a foreign, chaotic world.

The story of the lemon tree serves as sort of an allegory to the writer's own family. The writer Ibrahim, the father, was an affluent writer at the time...he also was heavily involved on the political front. Well he got married, had 3 kids - all of whom also got involved in political matters. Each of his children was arrested at one point or another during student protests. It was a very chaotic time for the family. It was as if their own 'lemon tree' was cut down, their peace destroyed and all of a sudden the entire family was thrown into this foreign, chaotic world the boy in the story attempts to explain.

Yeah. It was a bit much to pack into a 28 minute film.