Life is fleeting.
Each day is a fresh start, yes, but there are some days you just wish you could leave up on the chalkboard without time moving to wipe it clean.
And, more often than not, we’re left wondering what we’re supposed to cling tightly to in life — friends, family, ambitions, possessions — when it feels like your hands are already full.
I was thinking of popping in to the new “Captain America” movie this week, but realized that, instead, I want to talk about a different, profoundly rewarding film I watched recently.
“Promises” is a 2001 Oscar-nominated documentary that looks at the Israel-Palestinian conflict through the eyes of seven children from Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Filmed between 1997 and 2000, the film follows Israel-American filmmaker B.Z. Goldberg as he meets the kids, asks their thoughts on Israeli-Palestinian relations and eventually brings them together for an in-person hangout.
I didn’t decide to watch this movie based solely on the headlines in the news.
I was actually hoping to watch the 2024 documentary “No Other Land”, which has also been nominated for an Academy Award but has struggled to find distribution in the United States.
Barring that, I googled other recommendations for films on the conflict and this one caught my eye.
What stands out the most to me about the film is the age of the featured children.
The film’s synopsis lists the kids as being between the ages of 9 and 13 years old, and you can tell.
The kids are in that prime age — what we would call ‘tweens’ today — where every kid starts to realize that they can have knowledge and authority on a subject if they say it forcefully and confidently enough.
Of course anyone, myself included, would go into this movie with a grain of salt on how much of what the kids say is echoing their relatives and how much is straight from their own thoughts.
But again, at that age, you can tell pretty well. When a boy grins and lets down the pretense of being the ‘little expert’, that smirk lets you know that’s what he really thinks.
It was interesting, being about the same age, in about that same era, to get an eerie sense of deja vu of navigating politics as a kid.
I remember growing up in the shadow of 9/11 and mostly focusing on kid stuff — school and friend groups — while noticing that talking politics is the ‘adult’ thing to do.
As much as some families even nowadays want to raise their kids separate from all of that, it’s a fool’s errand.
But you’re left wondering, as you hear 10-year-olds speak with all the bravado of, well, a 10-year-old, how much of that is a kid being a kid and how much of that passion and anger will carry on into adulthood.
On the other hand, you get those unguarded moments of childhood crop up that no amount of directing could plan for.
When a boy is trying to give a serious interview for the camera, another boy comes over and starts making interrupting fart noises. The boy being interviewed can only hold his composure talking about international relations before breaking into giggles at the gag.
And one boy, getting ready in the morning, slathers handfuls of hair gel into his hands and smooths out his hair into greaser perfection.
Of course, there are far more angles to the conflicts and societies over there than can be captured in one film.
But watching these kids, still unvarnished by time and trouble, puts a face on the conflict far different than from talk shows and battlefield footage.
Toward the end of the film, a boy breaks down in tears over the fact that he knows filming is wrapping up soon, and that the director will leave.
Amidst sniffles and sobs, he wonders if the bonds he’s built will remain and what will happen next.
Much has changed in the region since the year 2000, little of it good.
But one thing has stayed the same: there are still children there.
I give “Promises” 5 stars out of 5.
Have you seen “Promises”? What did you think? Email Ben Rowe at browe@pressrepublican.com with your thoughts and takeaways.