Humanitarian Award 2020 Winner

Under the Lemon Tree

In this documentary, we spend a day under the shade of a lemon tree with a Palestinian woman named Khaldieh who was abruptly exiled from her hometown of Tulkarem in the year 1967. Preparing herself a humble breakfast of za’tar and inhaling the smell of sage, she recreates her homeland through an assemblage of simple elements.Though they may seem trivial, for many Palestinians they are among the only tangible pieces of their lost homeland that they still possess. She retreats into her memories of her early life in Palestine and, taking the viewer with her, gives voice to her deep longing for her land and home and reminiscences on the hardships of exile, the things she experienced, witnessed and lost. She unfolds the trauma of her sudden expulsion from the town she and all her ancestors grew up in. Holding onto a mere key to their home, she shares with us the pain of leaving her house for the last time, which she relates to her constant dreams of return.