code: def get_xml_root(xml_file):
      
      try:
          xml_root = etree.parse(os.path.expanduser(xml_file), NO_BLANKS_PARSER).getroot()
      # pylint: disable=broad-except
      except Exception as err:
          raise Dump2PolarionException("Failed to parse XML file '{}': {}".format(xml_file, err))
      return xml_root
docs: Returns XML root.