Three Promises is a powerful story of a mother and her camera, of a son and his memories, and of Palestine.
In the early 2000s, while the Israeli army is retaliating against the Second Intifada in the West Bank, young mother Suha records home movies of her family day-to-day. Her life is punctuated by frequent trips underground and overwhelmed by the anguish of her two children. At every moment of intense danger, she promises God that she will leave if they survive. Nearly two decades later, her son—director Yousef Srouji—discovers this archive and with it his stolen childhood. He and his mother reconnect with their suppressed past, wondering what drove her to record a daily life of suffering and why she delayed fleeing, paralyzed by hope for change and burdened by the impossible choice between physical safety and emotional upheaval. While on the surface there emerges a heartrending portrait of everyday life in times of war, the staggering beauty of a mother’s love is revealed between the lines. Blending the voices of the present with remarkable family footage, Srouji completes the story begun by his mother, thus averting the act of forgetting, both personal and cultural. (61 mins., DCP)
