Yousef Srouji’s exceptional film documenting his mother’s video diaries while the Israeli army retaliates against the second intifada in the West Bank will give viewers a scoop into the turbulent life of a Palestinian family thriving for normality in an abnormal world. Their routine involves taking shelter in the basement during air raids as they wait for the thunderous bombing to come to a halt. What stood out for me the most is how the family members coped with the constant bombing surrounding their building. The degree of which they become accustomed to constant shelling and how they cope with it varies greatly from one family member to another. It seems like Suha’s coping mechanism during those unforgiving occurrences was to pull out her video camera and film as much as she can. Yousef, her youngest, appears to succumb to silence, while his sister, Dima, absolutely terrified, often cries herself to sleep.
At times, they even use humour as an antidote to terror. In one particularly humorous scene, Yousef cheekily tries to calm everyone’s nerves, “Mom, sometimes it’s not Arabs shooting, it’s just their farts!” To which Dima adds, “Once we were all asleep, someone let out some sounds, and Yousef said, ‘watch out they might fire back at you!’”. When life gives them a hundred reasons to cry, they still manage to make room for laughter. The smiles in that shelter become psychological symbols of strength and resilience. It’s a beautiful poignant moment laced with warmth and sadness.
The kids go from reading Harry Potter books to debating the size of bullets and the sound of different types of explosives going off a few blocks away. The whining sirens from ambulances, the rattling sound of machine guns from distant combat engagements, and waves of vibration travelling from nearby collapsing buildings are so integrated in the everyday, yet they never quite get used to the horror. I can’t possibly imagine how extremely distressing and mentally exhausting it must be to live under such conditions. Imagine being scared to death, to actually contemplate the possibility of dying, night after night. Usually, these fleeting moments of complete utter terror only last a few seconds, but they feel endless. No human being should endure this type of psychological torture, let alone innocent civilians and children.
“Three Promises” is structured around three episodes of fear-inducing moments. Whenever this feeling of impending doom arises, Suha makes a promise to God. If he gets her family through this safely, she promises to leave the country with her family. The next day, when the dust settles and an air of calm takes over the streets, she renegotiates with God without keeping her end of the deal. Structured around these three promises, I couldn’t help but think of Emad Burnet’s excellent documentary about living under military occupation titled, “5 Broken Cameras”. His film was structured similarly, only instead of promises, it is segmented around the destruction of Burnat’s cameras. Both “Three Promises” and “5 Broken Cameras” would make a fascinating double bill showcasing how Palestinians bookmark their memories around near-death experiences.
Srouji seamlessly weaves together these episodes of fear with sound bites of a present-day conversation between himself and his mother. The reflective exchanges are meant to help them come to terms with the past, unpacking their repressed memories. It is precisely this stylistic choice that elevates his film into something much deeper. “Three Promises” is not just a documentation of a historic incident in the sphere of time, but a study of passed down trauma from one generation to the next. Watching this film in the midst of the humanitarian crisis and the collective punishment of a people in the Gaza strip will elicit an avalanche of emotion from even the most unsusceptible viewers.
The film clocks in sixty-one minutes of duration, and sadly by the time, you’ve finished viewing it, six innocent Palestinian children will have died. “Three Promises” is not simply a highly recommended viewing, it’s an urgent one; especially when it’s not just the mortality of thousands of children that is on line, but the morality of humanity as a whole.
Click here to check out the upcoming screenings for “Three Promises”.
The Cinephile Fix 