Could this film be more overblown dramatic and one sided ?

So you basically are saying, she should just have sold herself? Oh man, just read your post once again. You are so lost. It's a wonderful, mufti-layered movie. Too bad you did not see that.

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You know, I also thought of the same thing. But the truth is that the movie itself is real, I mean if I was in her shoes, this is how I would feel, and this probably the way things would go. In fact, the movie could have been quite a bit more one sided. It didn't show people getting killed or raped or anything. So in that sense I thought it was actually very well balanced. I thought the movie wasn't so much a direct commentary on the middle east crisis as it was a representation of a problem present in the whole middle east itself. There are always weak and poor people who's rights get trespassed regardless of their race, nationality or religion. It happens all the time. Now if some people watched the movie and got the wrong impression from it, well you really can't be responsible for their ignorance. And her not wanting to take the money? I totally understand! People in my own family wouldn't do it out of basic principal. And you being in the States should know how Americans feel about that sort of thing.There are a lot of people where their land is their land, their livelihood is their livelihood. And in some parts of the world, unlike the US, it's not even possible for a woman who's a widow to go out and get a job. If that land or the lemons get taken from her, how much is the compensation really going to cover? And for how long? And who is to guarantee that she'll actually end up getting all of it? There are so many details we don't know just from watching the movie. I think people are best just watching what it is, and taking it for what it is. Don't read a lot into it. I have a more important question though, if you're someone in his position who could live wherever you wanted, then why the hell did you choose to build your house next to farm land and on the edge of where you felt safe? So I think this movie is about regular people, in a regular situation, who use big political things to try to protect something very basic. He wanted to build his house in the worst possible location he could have chosen to build it. When sh*&t hit the fan, he was too proud to back off or move. He would lose face if he didn't do what the secret service ordered. And a man from a government especially one that i don't consider my own telling me to get off my land, coming in and building a fence around it? C'mon! How can you call yourself an American and not be on her side?!

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You know, I also thought of the same thing. But the truth is that the movie itself is real, I mean if I was in her shoes, this is how I would feel, and this probably the way things would go. In fact, the movie could have been quite a bit more one sided. It didn't show people getting killed or raped or anything. So in that sense I thought it was actually very well balanced. I thought the movie wasn't so much a direct commentary on the middle east crisis as it was a representation of a problem present in the whole middle east itself. There are always weak and poor people who's rights get trespassed regardless of their race, nationality or religion. It happens all the time. Now if some people watched the movie and got the wrong impression from it, well you really can't be responsible for their ignorance. And her not wanting to take the money? I totally understand! People in my own family wouldn't do it out of basic principal. And you being in the States should know how Americans feel about that sort of thing.There are a lot of people where their land is their land, their livelihood is their livelihood. And in some parts of the world, unlike the US, it's not even possible for a woman who's a widow to go out and get a job. If that land or the lemons get taken from her, how much is the compensation really going to cover? And for how long? And who is to guarantee that she'll actually end up getting all of it? There are so many details we don't know just from watching the movie. I think people are best just watching what it is, and taking it for what it is. Don't read a lot into it. I have a more important question though, if you're someone in his position who could live wherever you wanted, then why the hell did you choose to build your house next to farm land and on the edge of where you felt safe? So I think this movie is about regular people, in a regular situation, who use big political things to try to protect something very basic. He wanted to build his house in the worst possible location he could have chosen to build it. When sh*&t hit the fan, he was too proud to back off or move. He would lose face if he didn't do what the secret service ordered. And a man from a government especially one that i don't consider my own telling me to get off my land, coming in and building a fence around it? C'mon! How can you call yourself an American and not be on her side?!

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Putting politics aside I think this film is Insincere. The Direction is insincere & the acting is insincere if not terrible for some of the characters. This does not include the magnificent Makram Khoury & perhaps Hiam Abass. The film is also blunt (& over dramatic...).
For corrective experience see the Syrian Bride, Ajami or even Bethlehem which is not as good as the Syrian Bride but better than this one.

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The whole point of this film is that this sort of thing is not okay anywhere. And I actually think the film stands up for not just Palestinians but people around the world facing oppression from their governments disguised as 'protecting national security'. The Defense Minister moved into what he knew was a dangerous area and then complained about it being too dangerous, forcing a local woman whose family had lived there for generations out of her home and cutting her off from her livelihood, showing no compassion whatsoever for what it will mean for her.

that occurs regularly in this country and every Democracy

It's exactly this sort of thing that stops a Democracy from being a Democracy - when ordinary people are utterly powerless in the face of an almighty state. It's appallingly unfair. I don't see why because it happens in one place that makes it okay for it to happen anywhere else. Your comment reminded me of the scene towards the beginning of the film when Salma goes to that man in the cafe to translate the eviction notice for her, and his attitude is essentially 'Well the rest of us have to suffer, so why should you be any different?'. What a depressing lack of compassion.

and this grim old lady should just take the money and get over it already

Some people are genuinely not motivated by money. Salma is perfectly content with her life, she loves her work and her home. A cheque could never replace those things. It's very cold that you think someone should just 'get over' losing their home and their livelihood, along with all her family memories, like it's nothing. Oh, and she's neither grim or old!!

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