''Promises'' is a 2001

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

that examines the

Israeli–Palestinian conflict The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is an ongoing military and political conflict about Territory, land and self-determination within the territory of the former Mandatory Palestine. Key aspects of the conflict include the Israeli occupation ...

from the perspectives of seven children living in the Palestinian communities in the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

and Israeli neighborhoods of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

. ''Promises'' has been shown at many film festivals and received excellent reviews and many accolades. The film follows Israeli-American filmmaker B.Z. Goldberg as he meets with seven Palestinian and Israeli children between the ages of nine and thirteen, seeing the Middle East conflict through their eyes. It allows "ordinary" kids to develop natural bonds of affection by simply playing games with each other, bonds which go beyond the clutter of

prejudices Prejudice can be an affect (psychology), affective feeling towards a person based on their perceived In-group and out-group, social group membership. The word is often used to refer to a preconceived (usually unfavourable) evaluation or classifi ...

that they have heard from their parents and others around them.

Production

''Promises'' was shot between 1997 and 2000 and was produced in association with the

Independent Television Service ITVS (Independent Television Service) is a service in the United States which funds and presents documentaries on public television through distribution by PBS and American Public Television, new media projects on the Internet, and the weekly se ...

with partial funding provided by the

Corporation for Public Broadcasting The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB; stylized as cpb) is an American publicly funded non-profit corporation, created in 1967 to promote and help support public broadcasting. The corporation's mission is to ensure universal access to ...

. The film has a running time of 106 minutes, and includes Arabic, Hebrew and English dialogue with English subtitles. After its theatrical run, an abridged version aired as an episode of the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

series ''POV''. In 2004 the filmmakers' produced a follow-up program called ''Promises: Four Years On,'' which features interviews and updates on the children's current lives. It lasts 25 minutes and is included as a special feature on the film's DVD release.

The children

* Daniel and Yarko: Israeli boys living in west Jerusalem, secular Jews, put off more by religious Jews than Palestinians; grandsons of Holocaust survivor * Shlomo: Jewish quarter in Jerusalem, Orthodox, son of a rabbi from Jerusalem * Moishe: lives in Beit-El in the West-Bank, dislikes the Arabs. * Faraj: lives in the Deheishe refugee camp in the West Bank, Palestinian; son of Palestinian refugees * Mahmoud: Palestinian quarter in East Jerusalem; son of a merchant in the Muslim quarter of the Old City * Sanabel: Palestinian lives also in the Deheishe refuge camp, father is in prison because he was affiliated with the

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP; ) is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist organization founded in 1967 by George Habash. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation ...

. Her brother died from heatstroke, he was also in prison.

Reception

Critical response

''Promises'' has an approval rating of 96% on

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, based on 47 reviews, and an average rating of 7.81/10. The website's critical consensus states, "A heartbreaking and illuminating look at the Israeli and Palestinian conflict through the eyes of children".

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

assigned the film a weighted average score of 80 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Nominations

* Best Documentary,

74th Academy Awards The 74th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 24, 2002, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly ...

* Best Documentary, IFP Spirit Awards * Truer than Fiction Award, IFP Spirit Awards

Awards

* 2002 The NBR Freedom of Expression Citation National Board of Review * 2002 The Michael Landon Award for Community Service to Youth Twenty-Third Annual Young Artist Awards * 2001 Emmy Award, Best Documentary * 2001 Emmy Award, Best Background Analysis * 2001 Rotterdam International Film Festival Audience Award, Best Film * 2001 Munich Film Festival Freedom of Expression Award * 2001 Jerusalem Film Festival Special Festival Award * 2001 Locarno International Film Festival Special Ecumenical Jury Prize * 2001 San Francisco International Film Festival Audience Award, Best Documentary Grand Prize, Best Documentary Golden Gate Award, Documentary Film * 2001 Vancouver International Film Festival Audience Award, Diversity in Spirit Award * 2001 Hamptons International Film Festival Best Documentary * 2001 São Paulo International Film Festival Best Documentary Audience Award * 2001 Valladolid International Film Festival Best Documentary * 2001 Paris International Film Festival (Rencontres) Audience Award-Best Film

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=0282864, title=Promises
''Promises''
at '' POV''
The ''Promises'' Film Project

Promises Films, An Independent Documentary Filmmaking Company

Official Twitter Account
2001 documentary films 2001 films 2000s Arabic-language films American documentary films Documentary films about children in war Documentary films about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict Films directed by Carlos Bolado 2000s Hebrew-language films POV (TV series) films 2000s English-language films 2001 multilingual films American multilingual films 2000s American films English-language documentary films Arabic-language American films