OTHER RELEASES

Israeli director Eran Riklis has made an audience-pleasing drama about a most downbeat subject: the Israeli security regime in the Palestinian territories and the effect it has on the lives of ordinary people. A Palestinian widow has her lemon tree plot taken from her as a security measure after Israel’s defense minister moves in on the other side of the partition. A court challenge ensues, as well as a romantic entanglement between the woman and her lawyer. There is much more emotion and complexity to the story than a synopsis can provide; judging from early reviews it’s a film that deserves an eager audience.

This film opened last Friday for a full week of “previews” in various theaters, but the official season starts today. It’s a Spanish zombie movie, shot through a video camera accompanying a TV reporter. The woman and her cameraman record their subjects (firemen) on a call to a building where bloody disaster waits in the shadows — and there’s no way out. Wildly mixed reviews preceded this flick’s arrival in Taiwan, and although some have compared it to Diary of the Dead and Cloverfield, it better resembles a shaky-cam remake of the opening half hour of the original Dawn of the Dead. An American remake entitled Quarantine is already in the can.