Review by All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
liked it.
Promises is a profoundly moving document of the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Filmed during a period of relative calm in the region, before the second
Intifada, the filmmakers reduce the conflict to its smallest scale, literally, exploring the views of several Palestinian and Israeli children of varying backgrounds. The film offers a bare-bones primer on the conflict, but its main interest is in the lives of these children and the degree of hope they offer for the future. Some of these preteens, like Moishe, the Israeli boy who lives in a settlement within the occupied territories, appear to have been thoroughly indoctrinated, presumably by their parents (who are barely seen in the film), in ideological or religious dogma. Some, like Mahmoud, a Palestinian boy who lives in Jerusalem, seem to have arrived at their harsh views more through unpleasant experiences. Over the course of the film, we learn that things are more complicated. Moishe's views have been hardened by the death of a young friend at the hands of terrorists, and Mahmoud has his simplistic world view shaken by the revelation that his onscreen interviewer, whom he's grown close to (co-director B.Z. Goldberg), is a Jew who was raised in Israel. At the film's climax, Goldberg brings together the middle-class, non-religious Israeli twins, Yarko and Daniel, with several Palestinian children who live on the West Bank, including Faraj, whose friend was killed by an Israeli soldier during the first
Intifada, and a young girl, Sanabel, whose activist father has been imprisoned without trial by the Israeli government. For a fleeting moment, the film suggests there's hope, but the barriers to true friendship and understanding remain in place. The filmmakers' refusal to downplay the situation's intractability makes the glimmer of hope the film offers that much more powerful. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide