Waiting For Godot... In Sarajevo

Also known as “Letter from Venice,” Susan Sontag’s fourth and final film tells of a relationship that is fragmenting as the partners tour the decaying ruins of a hallucinatory Venice.

Susan Sontag scrutinizes the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict and the growing divisions within Jewish thought over the question of Palestinian sovereignty. Shot in Israel during the final days of the Yom Kippur War. Promised Lands is less straight documentary than visual collage. There are images of combat zones and soldiers, but also everyday street life, desert landscapes, funerals, supermarkets, the Wailing Wall. The soundtrack is snatches of radio, bursts of church bells and gunfire, and an extended voiceover from two politically opposed Israeli thinkers.

Bauer, a university professor, and his wife, Francesca, hire someone to help in arranging some papers for publication. The employee, Tomas, comes to live with the couple, and quickly discovers that things are not quite right with them. Francesca and Tomas end up having sex while the professor goes after the young man's mistress, Ingrid. Soon, the men swap partners, and reality and fantasy start to blur.

Two women, Karen (theatre director) and Lena, visit an island, a Swedish resort, where Lena's ex-husband, Martin (choreographer), lives in comparative seclusion with a mentally disturbed ballet dancer named Carl. Carl is brother by guilt rather than blood, for Martin is somehow responsible for his breakdown.