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The Promise [DVD]
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| Format | PAL |
| Contributor | Christian Cooke, Peter Kosminsky, Yvonne Catterfeld, Claire Foy |
| Language | English |
| Number of discs | 1 |
| Runtime | 5 hours and 54 minutes |
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Product description
Claire Foy (Little Dorrit) and Christian Cooke (Cemetery Junction) lead an international cast, including Itay Tiran (Lebanon), Haaz Sleiman (The Visitor), Ali Sulaiman (Paradise Now) and Perdita Weeks (Lost in Austen), in Peter Kosminsky's new four-part drama serial.
Just as 18-year-old Londoner Erin (Foy) sets off to spend summer in Israel with her best friend, Eliza (Weeks), she unearths an old diary belonging to her seriously ill grandfather, Len (Cooke). Intrigued by the life of this old man she barely knows, she takes the diary with her, and is stunned to learn of his part in the post-WWII British peace-keeping force in what was then Palestine.
Left to her own devices when Eliza begins National Service in the Israeli army, Erin witnesses the complexities of life--for both Jews and Arabs--in this troubled land. And as Len's story comes to life from the pages of the diary, Erin discovers the disturbing truths about his time in Palestine and the atrocities he witnessed in the 1940s.Retracing Len's steps in modern-day Israel, Erin sets out on a heart-breaking journey in an effort to understand and fulfil a promise made by her grandfather over 60 years ago.
DVD Extras- Filming in Israel 1940s and 2005
- Audio commentary with director Peter Kosminsky and producer Hal Vogel (Episode one and deleted scenes)
- Behind the scenes featurettes
Product details
- Language : English
- Package Dimensions : 18.03 x 13.76 x 1.48 cm; 83.16 Grams
- Manufacturer reference : 6867441038795
- Director : Peter Kosminsky
- Media Format : PAL
- Run time : 5 hours and 54 minutes
- Release date : 28 Feb. 2011
- Actors : Claire Foy, Christian Cooke, Yvonne Catterfeld
- Subtitles: : English
- Language : English (Dolby Digital 2.0)
- Studio : Channel 4 DVD
- ASIN : B004G5YVC8
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank: 30,089 in DVD & Blu-ray (See Top 100 in DVD & Blu-ray)
- 8,103 in Television (DVD & Blu-ray)
- 9,385 in Drama (DVD & Blu-ray)
- Customer reviews:
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But the interest of the film is not that dramatic, slightly sentimental line of approach. It is the pretext to take us everywhere in Israel and around and to witness what the Israeli soldiers are doing to the Palestinians today, the light resistance among Israelis against the war, and the way Israelis literally victimize the Palestinians to force them to leave so that Jewish settlers can take their place. The Israeli army is there to protect the settlers not to keep the peace and so let that victimization go on.
Then the parallel with what the Jewish nationalists did in 45-48 from wild bombing against the British army to the violence against the Palestinians and to the genocidal cleansing of some areas when they took over after the UN decision. Nothing has changed as for that: their objective is to re-conquer the whole Holy Land and nothing else because it was promised to them by God himself. And that promise is the backbone of the film.
The backbone because the film builds a parallel between what happened to the Jews in Europe under Hitler, the terrorism against the British and then the Palestinians from the Jews in Palestine up to 1948 and finally to what they are doing to the Palestinians today, killing blindly when necessary, chasing the Palestinians in the streets in Israel where they still are, and invading and destroying houses in Palestinian territories in the name of their fight against terrorism.
Terrorism is the main word of this drama. Hitler was a genocidal terrorist, but then the Jewish terrorists of 45-48, and the Israeli terrorists today who act in military uniforms against the Palestinians they call terrorists are seen as being just as brutal and inhumane as Hitler. You can see the idea that comes up from this constant parallel built into the series by the older period and the present alternating all the time and by the language and the situations that are so similar. And that conclusion, that hypothesis are absolutely unbearable. And yet no logical mind can avoid coming to it.
Yet facts and events are there to prove we are not insane. So what solution can there be? The film does not say anything about the future that looks bleak for the Palestinians on the brink of being completely eradicated from Palestine and the constant war that makes the Israeli state a military state governed by retired generals.
The only possible future is one state with all creeds and religions but this reunification of Palestine as a multi-confessional but secular state is just a dream. A dream, you said? When the military autocratic Arab states are falling like ripe fruits in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and military states of emergency are finally disbanded little by little in Algeria and even in Iraq, which is not an Arab state even if it is a Moslem country, we can wonder why Israel should remain the last one to be governed by generals, even retired, and living in a constant state of war against some fictitious and manipulated terrorist menace.
But everyone is going to tell me Palestine is not ready for a re-unified state. And I will conclude that there is absolutely no reason why Germany could be reunited, Vietnam could be reunited, South Africa could be racially reunited, and yet Palestine could not be. That is absurd and history hates absurdity. So time will be what time will bring and que sera que sera. I will see it before dying.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
Having seen all of it I must say that it was a very compelling and moving film. Peter Kosminsky has for the most part done excellent research. Many of the scenes and discussions in the film are spot on, exactly as I witnessed them in Israel and Palestine. Like the intolerable behaviour of the Jewish settlers in the centre of Hebron/al-Khalil. Some of Peter Kosminsky's detractors claim that he has falsified history. But I found his general description of Palestine in the 1940s and especially the pivotal events in 1947/48 spot on. For my take on political Zionism and British policy in Palestine, including Britain's responsibility see my response to Mr Conolly.
The reason why I could not give "The Promise" the full 5 stars was that the story, although powerful and moving, was a bit forced and artificial in places. It sometimes felt as if Peter Kosminsky was too keen to get all of the key events in the film. And that Len was personally involved in so many major events was pushing it a bit.
The use of Len's diary as a tool to tell his story has - as others have noted - been done before. But still, Peter Kosminsky uses it quite effectively.
The only time I raised my eyebrows was when Erin asks her Palestinian friend from Abu Dis to bring her to Gaza, which he does via a tunnel from Israel into the Strip. I know that Hamas carried out a daring raid in 2008 into enemy territory to capture Israeli soldier Shalit, so I cannot completely exclude the possibility of a tunnel between Gaza and Israel, but this is not the way people go from Israel into the Strip. My last entry into Gaza via Israel was in 2005. You do need a permit from the Israeli army, which is now almost impossible to get if you are not a diplomat, UN worker or accredited journalist.
My main conclusion however is that Peter Kosminsky has made a brave and compelling film that needed to be made. I cannot recall an earlier feature film about a British soldier in Mandate Palestine, torn between sympathy for the people who survived the Nazi death camps and friendship for a Palestinian family which ended up being dispossessed by Zionist forces. This is an excellent docudrama that gives food for thought and can be used in schools and other educational facilities.
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