When I watch films that take place in the dry landscapes of the middle east, it reminds me of the dryness of my home in southern California and simultaneously reinforces the contrast between our very different way of life. None but those in the most gang infested areas of the United states live in a state of constant fear and mistrust, where just getting from one place to another involves extreme discomfort and inconvenience, checkpoints and curfews.

The everyday consequences of this reality is the theme of Lemon Tree, a tale involving a defense minister and some lemons. It sounds funny and there are moments of humor but it turns out to be a quite serious examination of the absurd and ultimately unjust situations that exist because of the contested claims of the Israeli and Palestinian people. In the film, the land in question belongs to an impoverished palestinian widow Salma Zidane (Hiam Abass) who lives alone next to the lemon grove that her father left for her to tend. Unfortunately her quiet life is forever disrupted when the Israeli defense minister (Doron Tavory) and his wife Mira (Rona Lipaz-Michael) move in next door and it is determined by his security detail that the grove poses a threat and must be removed. Salma first goes to the patriarch of her community for assistance and when he offers none seeks out a young attorney Ziad Daud (Ali Suliman). She and Daud contest the removal of Salma's grove all the way to the Israeli Supreme Court.

What distinguishes this David vs Goliath story is the stubborn isolation of Salma and the way in which that produces a nothing to lose attitude. She is not a victim, one feels that although she may have limited options, like moving nearer to her children, one of whom beckons her to join him in the United States, she has them. And the option she chooses is to fight to hold on to a grove that doesn't even provide enough revenue to sustain her. Hiam Abass, seen recently in the superb The Visitor, is stunning looking, as in beautiful, yet able to channel a kind of bone-headed stoicism. In both films she is the mother of adult children, barely believable -- she's another role model for graceful maturity, but this time she is acting in her own self-interest, and there is no choice but to root for her.

The film is about many things but it is very much about women and the choices we must make, the way we are responsible for domestic life, expected to keep the peace. Mira, the wife of the defense minister, becomes the flip side of Salma, literally, as she looks out from her comfortable home at the lemon grove. At one point Mira even climbs over the fence to get a closer look at Salma, at this quiet thorn in her husband's side. As the fight escalates, she too seems to becomes inspired, shaken out of her much more beautifully appointed comfort zone.

Is this a film about how women will be the salvation of conflicts mainly started by men? I don't think so, as the peaceful nature of women is a myth perpetrated by men who clearly don't understand the way women relate to each other. What the film does best is examine quietly and directly, the myriad complications that have resulted from one of the central political conflict of our time, and that the fallout, even when it's merely about lemons, has no quick fix.

Lemon Tree is now playing.

Directed by Eran Riklis; written by Eran Riklis and Suha Arraf; produced by Bettina Brokemper, Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre, Michael Eckelt and Eran Riklis; director of photography, Rainer Klausman; edited by Tova Asher and music by Habib Shehadeh Hanna. Released by IFC Films. Running time: 106 minutes.

Hiam Abbass (Salma Zidane); Ali Suliman (Ziad Daud); Rona Lipaz-Michael (Mira Navon); Doron Tavory (Defense Minister Israel Navon); Tarik Copty (Abu Hussam); Smadar Yaaron (Tamar Gera) and Danny Leshman (Private Quickie.)