Promises
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Movie Reviews of Promises
Movie Review: Promises
Summary: 5 Stars
B.Z. Goldberg who has co-directed and -produced this documentary film became greatly interested in how the Palestinian-Israeli conflict affects the children on both sides. Thus the idea for the 'Promises' film was conceived. This documentary gives the viewer an intimate and incredibly honest look into the hearts and minds of seven Palestinian and Israeli children who live in and around Jerusalem and through them the conflict is explored as well how it is to grow up under such circumstances.The children (between ages 9-13) are: Mahmoud, Faraj, Sanabel, Moishe, Shlomo and the twins Daniel and Yarko. They speak with great intelligence, poise, freshness and awareness about their lives and hopes. There's no dumbing down here. B.Z. possesses an unique and wonderful ability to bond with these kids, they're truly at ease with him.
As several of the children emphasize the fact that there may still be hope or promise. They could play a role in the development of their country. For instance prejudices are shattered here when the twins visit the Palestinian children. An extremely important documentary, often heartwrenching but sometimes also with its funny moments, which you shouldn't miss!
Movie Review: Filled with great lessons
Summary: 5 Stars
What keeps hate and mistrust alive? Planting those seeds in the minds of children. What can diffuse hate and mistrust? Teaching children to see things from another's point of view. These seem to be (a few of) the lessons in Promises. Shocking in the movie is the amount of dogma absorbed, understood and regurgitated by (preteen) Jewish and Arab children (from Israel and the occupied territories.) Promises is an eye-opener in that it shows how real people - in this case, children - view the "enemy" in a conflict that has raged for decades (some would say millenia.)
Promises seems to have a bit of a Pro-Palestinian slant. There again, both points of view, for lack of a better term, are represented through the thoughts and feelings of the kids interviewed. Though sometimes terrifying how filled with mistrust - the beginnings of hate starting to creep to the surface - both the Jewish and Arab children seem to be, Promises is life-affirming in that glimpses of hope are seen as the children meet and interact with each other.
It's a great film. I wish someone had done a movie like this about kids in Northern Ireland.
Movie Review: impossible to overrate
Summary: 5 Stars
If you have ever wondered how to gain at least some understanding of the convoluted, protracted and intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict, watch this documentary film. You will learn its basic history, but perhaps more importantly you will learn about the deeply human impulses that drive that history, human impulses as they are experienced and narrated by seven children interviewed for this film project--Israeli and Palestinian, extremist and conciliatory, passive observers and political militants, boys and girls. A child's perspective, it turns out, touches the viewer very deeply, for these kids have siblings who have been killed and parents jailed without formal charges. In an especially moving sequence, the children meet together in an exchange of food, games, friendship, opinions, tears, and feelings of both hope and futility. The final frames show an Arab mother and a Jewish father in a maternity ward standing next to each other, each embracing their newborn baby. The producers edited over 170 hours of original interviews down to 107 minutes for this incredible film. In Arabic, Hebrew, and English, with English subtitles.Movie Review: Eye Opening
Summary: 5 Stars
We watched this documentary in my World Geography class - a subject I had very little interest in, until recently. I've always heard about the West Bank on the news, but never knew much about what was going on. It's about religion, right? Well, yeah... sorta. It's more about land than religion. The Palesitnians and the Jews both claim rights to it through their decendant Abraham.
This documentary is so good because it is told from the standpoint of children. Through these kids, you hear generations of hate and misunderstanding passed down through parents. Somehow, through their eyes, everything is clearer. At times you hold out hope that this can be resolved and at times, no hope whatsoever. It's funny, sad, serious and lighthearted.
After class I went home and ordered the documentary online. I intend on watching it again and showing it to friends to help them get a clear understanding of what is going on over there. I rate this documentary with Trekkies and Supersize Me. It's not as funny as the other two, but definitely worth your time and money.
Movie Review: Delightful & life-affirming despite bias
Summary: 5 Stars
The currency of life is hope, and this gorgeous little documentary delivers it in spades. With one proviso (below), I highly recommend this film - it will leave you with a tear and a smile. Glorious especially for its ability to tug at the heartstrings.
Of course, documentaries don't pretend to be unbiased. That's not the point of this film. The point is to inspire hope. However, the filmmakers here are very sympathetic to the Palestinian position and, perhaps because they assume that the extent of the terror against Israel is widely known, they don't linger on Israeli suffering in the conflict - which got to the point of multiple suicide bombings per day at the very height of the post-Oslo war.
The result is a film that is less interested in a fair representation of political reality than in emotion, emphasizing Palestinian suffering and edging on caricaturising Israeli suffering (through an unrepresentative sample of Israeli children, particularly the oafish religious settler boy).
Nevertheless - watch the film. It's gold.