Three Promises

A Palestinian mother documents life under fire during the Second Intifada. Decades later, her son pieces together these video fragments in an attempt to understand what took place.

It’s the year 2000 and Yousef is seven years old. He lives with his family in the West Bank as the Israeli army starts bombing during the Second Intifada. Unable to control the chaos around her, Suha turns to her trusted camcorder in an effort to document her children growing up – Christmas, children’s parties, reading Harry Potter, homework – as the bombs rain down. One night she promises that if they survive until the next day, they’ll leave, but they never do. Years later, an adult Yousef finds his mother’s videotapes. Searching through them, he weaves together fragmented images, learning more about that era, and his mother, who documented this world as her children huddled for safety in the basement.