There are stunning vignettes throughout, but the epilogue wags the picture in Promises.

This documentary follows one of its trio of directors, B.Z. Goldberg, as he befriends and interrogates four Israeli and three Palestinian children during the relative calm of 1997 and 1998.

The three filmmakers - Goldberg, who was born in Boston and raised outside Jerusalem; Justine Shapiro, who grew up in Berkeley, Calif.; and Carlos Bolado, a native of Mexico - strive for fairness in their thumbnail depiction of a conflict that begs debate over every "fact" or piece of terminology. But the movie isn't based on political analysis, anyway. It's rooted in the belief that children are more open and flexible than adults, and, given the opportunity to bond with the Other, better able to accept the innocence of peers in the enemy camp.

The concept behind Promises is one of those ideas that's almost inevitably moving: The movie balances evidence of parents warping the world-view of their kids with the filmmakers' liberal hope in childish resiliency.

Goldberg and company have an acute eye for the spontaneity and honesty of youth, as when they show an orthodox Jerusalem boy and a local Arab kid run up against each other in the street and segue into a belching competition. Although die-hards on both sides - a Hamas follower in the Arab quarter of Jerusalem, a Jewish boy from the settlements - resist any contact, the movie builds to the visit of two secular Israeli boys to a Palestinian home. However much a skeptic might resist the Family of Man sentiments, their affable jostling during impromptu athletics and lunch lends credence to their halting attempts at mutual understanding once interpreters arrive.

But the movie achieves its greatest depth when the filmmakers return in 2000 and discover that extremists have not swerved from their positions and, what's worse, all contact between the moderate Arabs and Jews has ceased. This postscript brings home how narrow the window of opportunity is for each generation to progress beyond ingrained biases.

Promises may want to unite the audience in humanitarian emotions, but it's more useful as a prod to examine what these children are learning from their schools, their leaders, and their media. If the moviemakers seem to want us to whistle "Getting to Know You," I kept thinking of that Crosby, Stills and Nash lyric, "Teach your children well."

Promises

Directed by Justine Shapiro, B.Z. Goldberg and Carlos Bolado

Released by Cowboy Pictures

Unrated

Running time 106 minutes

SUN SCORE * * * 1/2