Ester

Ottinger had been attracted to Jewish culture and its intrinsic nomadism since the late 1980s. His unrealized fiction film Diamond Dance was intended to be “a love letter to the Jewish communities of New York” and a “saga of wandering diamonds and wandering Jews”. Low budget and small in size, Esther is an echo of this ambitious concept that goes back to the classical religious parable. The narration is by the famous Hungarian writer György Konrád and the non-fictional dimension is introduced by non-professional interpreters: immigrants from Eastern Europe, including Russian Jews.