B.Z. Goldberg grew up in Jerusalem and eventually abandoned the Holy Land for the New World.  He returned in 1997 with his co-directors, Justine Shapiro and Carlos Bolado, armed with a camera and a very Maude Flanders-like notion of showing how the perpetual conflict in the Middle East has affected a set of children from very different backgrounds.  The result is Promises, a decent and decidedly neutral documentary that has dazzled film festival audiences from the Hamptons to Rotterdam and was recently nominated in Oscar's Best Documentary category, which is really surprising because they hardly ever nominate films about the Jewish experience (he said sarcastically).

Between 1997 and 2000, a period when tensions weren't quite as high in the region, Goldberg and crew followed the lives of seven kids, ranging in age from 9 to 13.  Even though they all live within a stone's throw from each other, their upbringings are substantially diverse.  There are twin secular Jews from West Jerusalem whose grandfather survived the Holocaust.  There's a Palestinian girl whose father was jailed by the Israelis without a trial. There's an ultra-Orthodox Jewish boy whose dad is a rabbi, and there's an Arab boy who supports Hamas.  In other words, they're all over the map.

On the plus side, it's interesting to see the conflict portrayed beyond the 30-second sound bytes we're used to getting on the evening news.  The children explain their unique positions with a combination of intelligence and naivete, but they're also passionate about things like Nintendo and burping contests, just like their American counterparts.  Of course, kids here don't usually have as many dead friends and relatives, unless their father happens to be David Koresh.

The centerpiece of Promises occurs during the last third of the film, which is when Goldberg arranges for some of the children to meet each other.  It's interesting, and it's sweet that the filmmakers are optimistic enough to think the area's problems can be solved if Palestinian and Jewish youths can arrange a few play dates together.  But the film's final shot, which features a burning tire rolling down the street, is probably a more accurate indication of the region's hope for future peace – an unfortunate symbol of things continuing in the same vicious circle.

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