Co-Presented By <a href="http://www.savac.net/" target="_blank"><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/eventive-static/872c6673f0898f83002ed9460d42770e.png" width="164" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px 1em 1em 0px;"></a><a href="https://www.unjppi.org/join-childrens-rights-campaign.html" target="_blank"><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/eventive-static/107d3ab8bef82d36078da84b1117b717.png" width="126" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px 1em 1em 0px;"></a><a href="https://imagesfestival.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/eventive-static/28c50c8e7948f88f6e1c306eb63620e1.png" width="178" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px 1em 1em 0px;"></a> <a href="https://regardspalestiniens.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Regards Palestinens</a>

Kamal Aljafari’s new film takes its title from a brief story by Borges, one that considers our collective inability to know God by sight. To play against this concept, Aljafari presents Israeli military propaganda materials from the 60s and 70s of the Israeli military conducting maneuvers in the desert. The material itself is uncanny, since it is never entirely apparent whether we are watching documentary scenes, a staged training film, or decontextualized excerpts from a fictional feature. This aspect, heightened by Aljafari’s precise editing rhythms, suggests that violence is always doubled, a representation of itself. Aljafari peers into the collective unconscious of “the most moral army in the world.” Past FestivalsLocarno Film FestivalViennale - Vienna International Film FestivalIFFR - International Film Festival Rotterdam

Paradiso, XXXI, 108

Three Promises is the story of a mother and her camera, a son, and his suppressed memories. In the early 2000s, Suha films her daily family life, punctuated by times sheltering with her two young children in the basement when Israel’s army retaliates against the Second Intifada in the West Bank. In each moment of intense danger, she promises God that she will leave Palestine if they survive the attack. In 2017, her son, the director of this film, discovers this rich archive of his childhood, and he reconnects with his suppressed past. Through his film, he explores with his mother what drove her to record their stolen childhood and why she delayed fleeing. What emerges is the heartrending portrait of everyday life in times of strife and the beauty of a mother’s love and sacrifices. Blending the voice of the present with impressive family footage, Yousef Srouji completes the story begun by Suha, thus averting the act of personal and collective forgetting. Past FestivalsVisions du Réel (World Premiere)Malmo Arab Film Festival (Swedish Premiere)Camden International Film Festival (U.S. Premiere) - in September 2023

Toronto Palestine Film Festival

Three Promises الوعود الثلاثة w/ Paradiso, XXXI, 108