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'My identity is the cinema' By Nirit Anderman Tags: cinema Hiam Abbass wrecked Eran Riklis' plans. One day during the shooting of his new film "Lemon Tree," the director related that after making "The Syrian Bride" four years ago, he intended to avoid politics and deal with a lighter subject. However, his desire to collaborate with Abbass again - in addition to his discovery of a story about a Palestinian woman who set out to defend her orchard - changed the course of events. In "Lemon Tree," which opened in theaters yesterday, Abbass plays a strong woman who rejects the conventions of the conservative society in which she lives. This was also the case in several other films, including "The Syrian Bride," in which she played Amal, the sister of the Druze bride who is not satisfied with her marriage, and dreams of higher education and independence, and in "Red Satin" (2002). In that French film, which first made her famous, Abbass played a Tunisian widow who gives free rein to her passions and her sexuality. "This isn't my choice. I haven't decided that this is the only kind of role I want to play, but it's more a matter of casting," says Abbass, who lives in Paris and came to Israel for a short visit to participate in the local premiere of "Lemon Tree." "It's more a question of whether you are suited to this role or not, whether you can bring something of yourself to this role." Advertisement Abbass, 47, is apparently the busiest and most successful Palestinian actress in the world today. During the past five years she has appeared in nearly 20 films, served as an advisor to Steven Spielberg on the film "Munich" (in which she also acted), and has worked as an acting coach on a number of films, among them "Babel," directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. She has also been nominated for the European Film Academy's audience prize for best actress, and also for two Israeli Ophir awards (for her performances in "The Syrian Bride" and in Amos Gitai's 2005 film "Free Zone"). Abbass has written and directed her second short film and a few weeks ago took part in the filming of Jim Jarmusch's new film, "The Limits of Control," alongside Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, John Hurt and Gael Garcia Bernal. Last month at the Berlin Festival, Abbass starred in two of the 52 films that were screened in the Panorama category: "Lemon Tree," which won the prize for audience favorite, and the French film "La Fabrique des sentiments," directed by Jean-Marc Moutout. In an interview at a hotel in Tel Aviv, Abbass, who was born in the Galilee village of Dir Hanna, skips frequently from one language to another, integrating phrases in English and French into sentences that she formulates in fluent Hebrew - and the other way around. She apologizes and explains that she lives her life in four languages. "Now I'm living in France, so I happen to be speaking more French, but in recent years I've been thinking in English a lot, because of my work, which is in various countries," she explains, admitting that she no longer has many opportunities to speak Arabic, her mother tongue, which serves her mostly in conversations with her parents and her relatives in Israel. "But let's try to speak in Hebrew now," she asks. "I want to test myself, even though I usually need a few days here before it comes back to me." In "Lemon Tree," Abbass plays the role of Salma Zidane, a Palestinian widow who lives on her own in a village in the West Bank, near the Green Line (pre-Six Day War border), and ekes out a meager living from the lemon grove adjacent to her house. The routine of her life is shaken when the Israeli defense minister and his wife (actors Doron Tavori and Rona Lipaz-Michael) move into a home on the other side of the orchard, and the Shin Bet security service guards are ordered to uproot her lemon trees "for security reasons." Until such time as this order is implemented, a fence is erected around the area, which denies Salma access to her trees. Although it is clear to her that her chances of bringing about a change in the Israeli security forces' decision are practically nil, Salma turns to a Palestinian lawyer (Ali Suliman) and decides to fight for her trees. As the film progresses, Abbass breathes hope, pride and inner strength into the character of the lonely and impecunious widow, and despite the varied cast of actors that surrounds her, it seems as though she carries the film on her shoulders alone. Dreams of freedom Abbass was born in 1960, the fifth of 10 siblings - two boys and eight girls. Both of her parents were teachers, and she says that even though they're very open people, she has always had a burning desire to be free. "I remember that at the age of 15 I already had big dreams of an individual's absolute freedom to be herself, to express herself - which is something that isn't easy in a village, because you know that people are always judging you. I think this even began for me when I was still in my mother's womb," she laughs. "I feel like the first thing that I yelled when I came out of my mother's womb was 'Why?' Why here, why a woman, why in this country, why in this village? I was always asking myself those questions." When the Six-Day War broke out, she was 6 years old. "And what I remember of that war is standing there with my grandmother in the kitchen, as she was preparing lunch, and asking her again and again why - why are they fighting, who is who in this war, and how come people from my family who had to leave in 1948 and move to the other side of the border, to Lebanon, are now fighting with the people I have to live alongside of?" At 17, after completing her matriculation exams, Abbass left Dir Hanna and began to study photography at a college. After a short period during which she worked as a photographer, she came upon the Al-Hakawati Theater in Jerusalem and started to take pictures of the plays; while doing so, she was reminded of the love of acting she had felt at school. A month later, when one of the actresses had to drop out of the play she was performing in, the director of the theater asked Abbass if she would like to try her luck. She accepted the challenge gladly, learned the part in seven days and within a week was already on stage together with the other actors. After several years of acting in the theater, Abbass started to divide her time between Israel and London. When she was 28, she decided to leave Israel once and for all. "I realized that this isn't a place I needed to belong to and that I had a lot more to taste in other places," she says. "Although I had done things here, at the same time I felt that I had to deal with many things that were taking my energy to a different place from the one I aim for: fulfilling expectations, justifying myself, fitting the label that people want to stick on me, associating myself with things that I don't necessarily want to be associated with. At that time I felt that this country wasn't giving me the space I need. I felt suffocated and I wanted to choose my own way for myself." Abbass acknowledges that the first time she received an offer to participate in an Israeli film - "The Syrian Bride" - she debated with herself whether to accept. "The French producer of the film sent me the script. I loved it, but I didn't know at first whether this was a project for me," she recalls. "I had difficulty with the idea that this is an Israeli director's film. I couldn't understand how I was suddenly relating to that again, after I had already disengaged from this country, after I had decided to be a free individual who isn't shut into any specific framework. But the moment I met Eran - the connection between us was immediate." For nearly 20 years now she has been living in Paris. She is married to a Frenchman, is the mother of two daughters (18 and 14), and she spends a large part of her time traveling and filming in various countries. Nowadays the question of identity does not bother her as it did in the past: "I feel Palestinian, because I was born into a Palestinian family and I grew up as one, but much more strongly than that I feel like a person who belongs to humanity in a much more universal sense than this small identity they give you." Now, Abbass adds, she wouldn't discriminate between offers from an Israeli director and a Palestinian director: "Nowadays, what is important to me is how I connect with the role they are offering me, and it doesn't matter to me whether it is an Israeli or a Palestinian film. Today my identity is the cinema and my home is the film set." Bookmark to del.icio.us   Devil's weed New campaign equates smoking pot with terrorism. Bad company A BBC poll says Israel world's most hated country after Iran.

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