Actually, the director and actress Cherien Dabis wanted to make her new film in Palestine, but due to the Hamas massacre of October 7, 2023 and the subsequent Israeli invasion in Gaza, the team had to flee from the country. But now it is all the more central that Dabis' generational drama “offers a narrative from a Palestinian perspective” in the shadow of the orange tree “. The script was not subsequently changed in terms of content, but the staging was allowed more space for silence and pain, without that being derived into a mixing. Despite a clearly pro-Palestinian attitude, Dabis' epic family saga is a cinematic peace offer and shows that humanity is a form of resistance that nobody can take away.
In the meantime, the Hollywood stars Mark Ruffalo (“Avengers 5”) and Javier Bardem (“F1 – The Film”) are also on board. Above all, Bardem praised the 145-minute work in interviews across the board: “Cherien's beautiful, intelligent and deeply moving film shows the true history of Palestine in an impressive way, which has never been told in such an artistic and authentic way.” A logical choice is that the film Jordan, who was premiered at the Sundance Festival, will be represented in the “Best International Film” category at the upcoming Oscar season.
Until 1948, Salim still experienced a happy childhood in parental orange grove in Jaffa.
In 1988, the teenager Noor (Muhammad Abed Elrahman), son of Hanan (director Cherien Dabis himself) and Salim (Saleh Bakri), was seriously injured in a protest against the Israeli occupation in West Bank. 34 years later, Hanan looks at a young Jewish man in a café and begins to tell the story of her family: “Nobody would ever have believed that it would happen. I will tell you how it started.” It starts in 1948 with the founding of the state of Israel. On an orange grove in Jaffa is the house of Salim's father Sharif (Adam Bakri), who lifts his son up to let him pick an orange from the tree. But happiness does not last long: the village is bombarded and Sharif's wife is pushing to visit a safer place with the children, while Sharif lies behind to guard the house.
There is disagreement between the generations three decades later: While grandfather Sharif mourned the ancient times and wants to bring his Palestine close to his grandchildren, father Salim tries to find a different approach. One of the strongest and at the same time the saddest moments takes place when Salim is humiliated with his little son Nosor on the way home by soldiers. They threaten the father with weapons so that he shouts out loudly in front of his son that he is a donkey. After that, he also has to insult Noors's mother. The two are spared, but the humiliated Salim has lost the respect of his son from then on …
What the war does after the bombs
Cherien Dabis, a daughter of Palestine parents born in the USA, is committed to the visibility of Arab-American stories. Her films have always been autobiographically shaped, which is no different with “In the shadow of the orange tree”: When she learns in 2007 on the way to Ramallah, why she is in traffic jam, the desire to make a film is growing over it. Through the air crushed by intoxication, she sees young men who throw stones in protest. A number of Israeli soldiers focus on rifles – and they asks themselves: Who are these men and with what thoughts they came to this demonstration?
So the filmmaker decided to get out far and portray a family in the middle of decades of political unrest. Dabis can be inspired primarily by their own experiences. They are not interested in war pictures, so you won't see any bombs or burning houses. Instead, Dabii gives personal insights into a fragile family life drawn by the war.
“In the shadow of the orange tree” tells the story of three generations of a family for more than seven decades, which is largely shaped by the continuing occupation of the West Bank.
The strength of “In the shadow of the orange tree” is that Dabis developed its plot out of a very personal pain. She also experienced the scene described with humiliation by the soldiers in a modified form: at the age of eight, she traveled to Palestine with her family for the first time, where they were held at the border for twelve hours. All their things, even those of their one and three years old sisters, were searched, and all of them were also subjected to physical visitation. Her father wanted to defend her and was screamed by a soldier. A dangerous situation for him – and for the eight -year -old daughter a picture that she has not forgotten all her life.
Due to the difficult conditions, as I said, it was not filmed in Palestine, but on Cyprus and Greece. Dabis' father was also in exile – and it is all of these biographical overlaps that have noticeably shaped the film. Nevertheless, the film does not bend anger and violence, but fights for love. In an interview, Dabis speaks for openness and curiosity so that conflicts can be solved: “We have to ask ourselves whether we are curious to learn and understand what the other has suffered. This is a task that we should all face,” said the director. “Because if we do not concentrate on the common humanity of all people – and do not allow the powerful to take advantage of our differences to their own advantage – then we will never have peace.”
This intention can also be felt in “In the shadow of the orange tree”.
Conclusion: “In the shadow of the orange tree” is a huge epic about the loss of home and human strength-and thus an outstanding candidate for the upcoming Oscar season!
We saw “in the shadow of the orange tree” at the Hamburg Film Festival 2025.