Late Bloomer

It’s a blustery day at the Edinburgh Film Festival but Hiam Abbass, the acclaimed Palestinian actress, couldn’t look more elegant and unflappable. Can her dark cascading locks really be this immune to spitting raindrops and the rest of the conspiring elements?

This apparent superpower is probably just as well. At the grand old age of 48 – that’s long after death in actress years – Ms. Abbass will most likely spend the spring of 2009 at various awards ceremonies.
It has been a long time coming. Although well known to festival audiences as the arthouse beauty from Paradise Now (2005) and The Syrian Bride (2004), the award-winning actress has only recently come to the attention of the English-speaking world as Marie Claude Hamshari in Steven Spielberg’s Munich.
The role, though minor, would prove a turning point for the international star. Dismayed by the film’s stereotypical portrayal of Palestinians, she took the matter up with Mr. Spielberg who was impressed enough to promote her to technical advisor.
“I had only been hired to do a small part,” she recalls, “to work two weeks at the beginning and two weeks at the end but after I met Steven he asked me to stay on as a coach for the actors. To ensure they would do certain things in the right way in Hebrew or Arabic. I advised Steven on the period, the language, the culture for months. He was great to work with, very secure and open to ideas.”
This year, Ms. Abbass’ bid for world domination was furthered by a winningly melancholic, Oscar-tipped performance in Todd McCarthy’s crowd pleasing romance, The Visitor. She has, additionally, just finished work on Jim Jarmusch’s The Limits of Control.
Currently, Irish audiences can find Ms. Abbass doing her thing in the pastoral French comedy Conversations With My Gardener and the controversial new Israeli drama, Lemon Tree.
“I grew up there,” she says. “So the role didn’t necessitate any research. I come from a place where it is very difficult for people to respect each others’ differences but my own heritage is mixed. I grew up in a Muslim family in a mixed village. Israelis used to tell me ‘You must be Christian, you don’t like a Muslim’. Being Muslim at that time was far less traditional, far more secular than it is now but it was the third religion and the Jewish religion was dominant and oppressive. Muslims and Christians were all second class citizens.”
Lemon Tree takes up this theme. Based on the true story of a West Bank Palestinian widow who found her livelihood threatened when a new Israeli Defense Minister moved in next door, the film follows its heroine’s brave legal fight to save her lemon grove from being chopped down for security reasons.
Despite her background and her forthright exchanges with a certain bearded movie god, Ms. Abbass is adamant that the film is entirely fair and that she will not be a mouthpiece for any cause; “An interviewer asked me earlier today ‘Are you Christian or Muslim?’ Like it matters. I always say ‘half and half’. What a question! I am an actress. I like good scripts and good directors. I might come from a country that is considered the most anti-Semitic in the world. But I grew up feeling offended by the righteousness of fanatics on both sides. Just because I agree with the national side in your Irish conflict doesn’t mean I was not horrified by IRA bombings. The only way forward in these situations is communication.”
Born in Nazareth, the young Hiam Abbass would quickly become disillusioned by the turmoil around her. As a teenager she studied photography, then made for the bright lights of London and Paris, where she is still based. Her career is as international and multi-lingual as she is and she is equally at home appearing in French, English, Hebrew and Arabic projects. She has, however, resisted the lure of Hollywood thus far.
“It does not interest me,” she says with an emphatic shake of the head. “I like the freedom of moving between different languages and cultures too much.”
She smiles. “But if Steven calls I might try to make the time.”

Lemon Tree is released December 12