January 30 • Thu 7 pm, doors at 6:30 - in person at SPACE, 538 Congress St, Portland, ME

Three Promises 🎥 dir. Yousef Srouji • 61 min. $10, $7 for SPACE members

📹 Maine Palestine Film Collective, Maine Jewish Voice for Peace, and SPACE Gallery are proud to present a screening of Three Promises, a film by Yousef Srouji, and a recent standout at Camden International Film Festival. The film screens at SPACE on January 30th — and 50% of ticket sales will go to Yousef.

Three Promises is the story of a mother and her camera, of a son and his suppressed memories, and of an entire country. At the start of the 2000s, while the Israeli army is retaliating against the second intifada in the West Bank, Suha films her daily family life, punctuated by frequent trips underground and overwhelmed by the anguish of her two young children. At every moment of intense danger, she promises God that she will leave if they survive.

In 2017, her son — the director of this film — discovers this archive and reconnects with this suppressed past, wondering with his mother what drove her to record a daily life of suffering, a stolen childhood, and why she delayed fleeing, paralyzed by the hope for change and burdened by the impossible choice between physical safety and emotional upheaval. While on the surface there emerges the heartrending portrait of everyday life in times of war, it is the staggering beauty of a mother’s love that is revealed between the lines. Blending the voice of the present with impressive family footage, Yousef Srouji completes the story begun by Suha, thus averting the act of forgetting, both personal and collective.

Co-presented by @jvp.maine, @mainepalestinefilm, and @space538

Instagram / @space538