Original subtitles

Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasverus,

who reigned from llndia to Ethiopia, over one hundred and twenty-seven lands,

that in the third year of his reign in his capital Shushan,

King Ahasverus gave a banquet for all his princes and servants.

All the power of Persia and Media gathered before him,

and he showed the riches of his kingdom and his glorious majesty

for a hundred and fourscore days.

When these days expired, he gave a banquet for all of Shushan

a seven-day feast, in the palace garden.

White, green, and blue hangings hung from silver rings on marble pillars.

Couches of gold and silver lay upon red, blue, and white marble.

Wine was served in golden goblets.

The wine flowed freely, as befitted the King's estate.

At this time, Queen Vashti gave a feast for King Ahasverus' royal harem.

Bring Queen Vashti in her royal crown,

to show the people and royals how fair she is to look upon.

Your Majesty.

The King wishes you to appear before him

that he and his guests might feast their eyes on you.

No.

lf it please the King,

let him command that all fair young virgins be sought out.

Let officers be sent to every land in his kingdom

to seek the fairest

and bring them to the capital, Shushan,

under the custody of Hagai, keeper of the royal harem

and let them be purified

and let the maiden who pleases the King be Queen instead of Vashti.

So be it, and so be it written.

What is destiny?

Some are swept to the heights.

Others roll in the dust.

And the King ordered that letters be sent to every land in his kingdom

each land in its own writing and each people in their own language:

"Let each man be king and master in his own home...

and let Queen Vashti's royal estate be given to one better than she!"

What is destiny?

Some are swept to the heights.

Others roll in the dust.

Now in the capital Shushan, there lived a certain Jew

named Mordecai, son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish

a descendant of Benjamin

who had been exiled from Jerusalem with the King of Judah

by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon.

He raised Esther, his uncle's daughter, who had neither father nor mother.

Esther was fair and beautiful

and Mordecai took her for his own daughter.

Of all the maidens gathered in Shushan, unto the custody of Hagai.

Esther pleased Ahasverus most.

But Esther had not disclosed her race or her kindred

for so Mordecai had bidden her.

These are the seven most worthy maids in the palace.

They will prepare you for your appearance before the King.

You and your maids will stay in the best house in the royal harem.

Their purification lasted twelve months.

Six months with oil and myrrh

and six months with perfumes and other women's balms.

And at the end of this time, the maidens were taken before the King.

O little girl, tomorrow you will be a woman.

lt vexes me, for you are still a child.

For already you think of a man. And tomorrow you will say: This is he.

O little girl, tomorrow you will be a woman.

People say she's a child l say she will grow up.

They fear l shall be lost in you and shall regret it.

l love you, not because you are my child.

O little girl, tomorrow you will be a woman.

When each maiden went to appear before the King

she was given whatever she desired from the harem.

At night she went before the King, and in the morning returned to the harem.

She appeared before him no more

unless the King desired her again, and summoned her by name.

People say she is still a child, l say she will grow up.

They fear l shall be lost in her, and shall regret it.

l love you, not because you are my child.

O little girl, tomorrow you will be a woman.

- Good day. - Good day.

- Are you well? - The Lord be praised.

- The royal garments become you. - Yours, too, become you.

And the young Esther, is she treated well?

What should be done is done.

And the young Esther, is she treated well?

What should be done is done.

And the young Esther, is she treated well?

What should be done is done.

What should be done is done.

Esther, young maiden from Shushan.

Turn around.

Show your beauty to King Ahasverus, who reigns from lndia to Ethiopia.

My beloved is mine and l am his. He feedeth among the lilies

My beloved is like a young deer upon the mountains of spice

At night l sought him in my bed, he whom my soul loveth

l sought him but l found him not

l will rise now and go about the city

l will seek him whom my soul loveth l sought him but l found him not

The watchmen going about the city met me

Did you see him whom my soul loveth?

Soon after l left them, l found he whom my soul loveth.

And now the gifts to the King from all the lands of his kingdom:

Spices from Sumeria.

Precious stones from Ethiopia.

Bluebirds from lndia.

Pearls from the Bay of Babylon.

Flint from the mountains of Ararat.

Bats from the caves of Akkad.

Pure gold from China.

Diamonds from the mines of Africa.

A spotted leopard from Bengal.

Golden coral from the Red Sea.

Yellow serpents from the deserts of Arabia.

To honour the King's wedding, a holiday is proclaimed throughout the kingdom.

Each man shall receive two pieces of gold,

a measure of meat, a measure of oil, and a measure of wine.

And Esther still has not disclosed her race or her kindred,

as Mordecai had bidden her.

And Esther still obeys her uncle, as she did in her youth.

Let the deed be done at dawn, as the King leaves his chamber.

Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my bride

Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, my sister, my bride

How fair is thy love

My sister, my bride

And the smell of thy garments is as the smell of Lebanon

Watch over the King as he goes to the balcony this morning.

There is a plot to harm him.

O my king, l have learned there is a plot against you.

Who is he?

Who dares raise a hand against the King of Persia and Media?

Bigthan and Teresh.

See if there is truth in it.

O night, how long you are

You have made me walk barefoot

O burden, how heavy you are

How heavy you rest upon my shoulders

Because of you my heart is torn apart

Shredded

And the dark hair on our heads, o my mother

O how white it has become

The Queen spoke the truth, Your Majesty.

The law decrees the traitor's sentence is death.

Who discovered the plot?

Mordecai.

Let Mordecai's great deed be written in the chronicles of the King.

My patience is the patience of the tree

beneath the blows of the axe

l bear with patience the passage of time

as the flesh of fowl bears the time it cooks

O eyes, cry no more

O eyes, how unjustly you have treated me

O eyes, what use are your tears now?

My heart is in shreds because of you.

What?

Oh yes.

And King Ahasverus favoured Haman, son of Hammedatha the Agagite.

And he set his seat above all other princes and ministers.

And all the King's servants bowed down and obeyed Haman.

For so the King had commanded.

But Mordecai did not bow, nor did he obey.

Why do you disobey the King's command?

l am a Jew.

And l shall bow before no man, only God.

A rebellious people who disobey the King's commands shall be punished.

l see great peril in the future.

l cannot see clearly. All is shrouded in mist.

l cannot see clearly the face of the executioner.

But is it not...

lt is a face l have seen.

ln the twelfth year of the King's reign

in the first month, that is the month of Nisan,

they cast the Pur, the lot, before Haman for the day and month

when the people of Mordecai should be destroyed.

There is a people dispersed among all the lands of your kingdom

whose laws are different from all others and who disobey the King's laws.

Your Majesty.

lt does not befit the King to tolerate them.

lf it please the King, let it be written that they be destroyed.

Write the Jews' fate as you see fit, in the King's name

and seal it with the King's ring.

Your Majesty.

And the letters were sent with orders

to destroy, slay, and exterminate all Jews,

young and old, women and children, in one day.

And to plunder their possessions.

The writ is given in every land

and shown to all so that they might be ready for that day.

lf l am not for myself, then who is?

lf l am only for myself, who am l?

And if not now, when?

"l, King Ahasverus,

who reigns from lndia to Ethiopia,

whose subject peoples are many,

whose power is great in the world,

l hereby proclaim

that my wish is to rule in mercy and justice

and not submit to the arrogance of power

and to secure peace for my people,

to spread wisdom and culture

and open new roads to all corners of the kingdom

and bring us the peace for which all men hope."

The letters were dispatched to all the lands of the kingdom

to destroy, slay, and exterminate all Jews

young and old, women and children, in one day

and to plunder their possessions.

The writ is to be given in every land

and shown to all so that they might be ready for that day.

"Haman has told us

that among all the peoples scattered across the earth,

there is one evil people whose laws oppose the laws of all other nations

and who disobey the King's law and subvert our mutual government.

This people we shall uproot, in good faith and without blame.

We are convinced

that this people alienate themselves from the world community

by keeping to their foreign laws.

And that this people, being hostile to our shared security

is bound to do evil."

"Haman has told us

that among all the peoples scattered across the earth

there is one evil people whose laws oppose the laws of all others,

who disobey the King's law and subvert our mutual government

This people we shall uproot, in good faith and without blame.

We are now convinced

that this people alienate themselves from the world community

by keeping to their foreign laws.

And that this people, being hostile to our shared security

is bound to do evil."

"Therefore we hereby decree

that all those named by Haman

will be exterminated to the last one,

young and old, without mercy, by their enemy's sword on one day.

The thirteenth day of the twelfth month of Adar.

We are now convinced

that this people alienate themselves from the world community

by keeping to their foreign laws.

And that being hostile to our shared security, this people is bound to do evil.

Therefore we hereby decree

that all those named by Haman

will be exterminated to the last one,

young and old, without mercy, by their enemy's sword on one day.

The thirteenth day of the twelfth month of Adar."

"By destroying our enemies

we shall obtain peace and security."

They are persecuting an innocent people.

They want to destroy an innocent people.

They are persecuting an innocent people.

They want to destroy an innocent people!

Who is this coming up from the wilderness,

leaning upon her beloved?

Who is she that looketh forth as the morning?

Set me a seal upon thine heart, for love is as strong as death.

Your Majesty.

Your uncle Mordecai is at the palace gates wearing rags and stained with ashes.

He cries loudly and bitterly.

Take him the most beautiful garment in the palace.

Thou that dwellest in the gardens

Thy companions hearken to thy voice.

Let me hear it.

Your Majesty.

Your uncle will not take the garment you had me take him.

Return to him and ask him what the problem is.

Thou art fair, my beloved, thou art fair

Thou hast doves' eyes within thy locks

And thy hair is as a flock of goats

Your Majesty, Mordecai sends you the Ring's decree.

He asked me to repeat to you his words.

"Remember your modest past.

And how l nourished you with my own hands.

Haman has set the King against us, and means to destroy us.

Plead for your people with the King

Save us from destruction."

Go to Mordecai and tell him

that all the King's servants and subjects know

that any man or woman who comes unbidden unto the King

shall be put to death

unless the King hold out the scepter, for then he shall live.

And l have not been summoned before the King for thirty days.

Say this to Esther...

Think not that thou shalt escape in the King's palace, more than all the Jews.

For if you hold your peace now.

the Jews will be delivered by another hand and you and yours shall perish.

Who knows if you have come to majesty for such a time as this?

Who knows if you have come to majesty for such a time as this?

Go and speak thus to Mordecai...

Go, gather all the Jews present in Shushan

And fast for me

Do not eat or drink for three days

Night and day

l and my maidens will fast likewise

And so will l go in unto the King

And if l perish, l perish

O you who leads the camel, take my kisses to my mother

And tell her what has happened to me

Tell her of my anguish

And what of it, my mother, if they put an end to my life?

l shall come back to you, my mother, my homeland, for an impossible eternity

This soil, without the rose, is a barren soil

Like a thorn l shall draw out the rose and pierce my flesh with it

And l shall plant it in my blood

O you who leads the camel

Take my kisses to my mother

Tell her what has happened to me

Tell her of my anguish

Approach!

Like an angel of God you appear to me, o my master.

And your magnificence fills my heart with fear and awe, for you are idolized.

What will you, Esther? What is your request?

Ask, and half my kingdom is yours.

lf it please the King, let the King and Haman attend a banquet l shall prepare.

Go, bid Haman to do Esther's wish.

What is your wish? lt shall be done. Ask, and half the kingdom is yours.

lf l find favour with the King

and if it please the King to grant me my wish and my request,

let the King and Haman come to the banquet l shall prepare tomorrow.

Let it be so.

l had a dream... What was it?

The King's life was in danger.

Bigthan and Teresh were the traitors.

But who discovered the plot?

Bring me the chronicles of the King.

What honour has been done to Mordecai for unveiling the plot against me?

Nothing, my lord.

Call one of my ministers.

Who is in the court?

- Haman stands in the court. - Let him come to me.

Your Majesty.

What shall be done for the man whom the King wishes to honour?

The man whom the King wishes to honour?

Give him royal garments

and a royal stallion.

Lead him through the streets, and let it be proclaimed:

"Thus shall it be done for he whom the King wishes to honour!"

Make haste.

Take a stallion and the garments as you have said.

And do even so to Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the King's gate.

Let nothing fail of all that you have said

And Haman decided to build a gallows, fifty cubits high

and the next morning speak to the King and have Mordecai hanged on it.

His Majesty King Ahasverus, who rules from lndia to Ethiopia.

They say l am dark

But fair was my skin

Darkened by the blaze of the summer sun

Dark am l now

How fair you are, my dark-skinned bride

A flame is burning in your eyes, my heart is all yours.

What is your request, Esther? lt shall be given to you.

Ask, and half the kingdom is yours.

lf l find favour with the King, and if it pleases the King.

My wish is my life, and my request is the life of my people.

For we have been sold, l and my people, to be destroyed, slain, and exterminated.

lf we had been sold into bondage, l would have held my tongue.

For then our plight would not have injured the king.

Who dares do so?

An adversary and an enemy, this wicked Haman!

My Queen, do you know

if the King does not pardon the sinner, he is doomed to die.

lf l am not to be forgiven,

will my Queen not plead for me?

Will you force the Queen here in my presence?

Haman has prepared a gallows for Mordecai, who once served the King well.

This gallows stands in Haman's garden, fifty cubits high.

Hang Haman on it!

The Queen Esther and her uncle Mordecai.

lf it please the King, and if he favours me

and if the King deems it good,

let a writ be issued to recall the letters written by Haman,

which he wrote to destroy the Jews in all the King's lands.

For how can l endure evil done to my people?

How can l endure the destruction of my kindred?

l give you Haman's house.

He shall be hanged because he laid his hand upon the Jews.

lssue a writ concerning the Jews as you see fit

in the King's name.

Seal it with the King's ring.

For what is written and sealed in the King's name, may no man reverse.

Death to Haman! Death to Haman!

Death to Haman!

And Mordecai wrote in the name of the King and decreed

that Jews may unite and stand for their life,

to destroy, slay, and exterminate all their foes,

women and children

and plunder their possessions.

And the letter also revoked the extermination

that had been decreed by Haman.

And when the new proclamation was declared,

the Jews had light and joy and gladness and honour.

And many people of the land became Jews

for the fear of the Jews fell on them.

And all the rulers of the land, and the deputies

and the ministers, the officers, and the pashas of all the lands

and all those who work for the King

favoured and helped the Jews

for the fear of Mordecai fell upon them.

And the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword.

And they killed all women and children.

But they did not touch the plunder.

The Jews have slain five hundred men in Shushan, plus the ten sons of Haman.

And many more throughout the kingdom.

What is your wish? lt is yours. What is your request? lt shall be done.

lf it pleases the King, let the Jews do tomorrow as they have done today.

Let it be so.

And let Haman's ten sons be hanged upon the gallows.

So be it.

On the morrow, the Jews rested and made a day of feasting and gladness.

Mordecai gained power, and his fame went throughout the kingdom.

Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews in all the King's lands

that they celebrate the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar.

Every year.

And the Jews in Shushan gathered and slew three hundred more.

My name is Shmuel Wolf, l am an actor.

l was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1934.

My mother died when l was seven, and l was left with my father.

He remarried eighteen months later, so l had a stepmother.

The Germans took Hungary in 1944.

They killed my father six months later,

in one of the Budapest pogroms.

But it was too late to send us to the concentration camps.

l left for lsrael in 1948 and arrived in January 1949.

l had always imagined lsrael as something beautiful

going by pictures, and by what l was told.

Just like it says in the Bible: a land of milk and honey, idyllic.

l am David Cohen Hatak, born March 19, 1947, in Alexandria, Egypt.

l grew up by the sea.

Everyone was an Arab, l was the only Jew.

Different religion, a different language, somewhere there was a Jewish country.

When l reached school age

they called me "dirty Jew," and l cried.

We came to lsrael in 1954 and it's the same story.

l don't speak Hebrew, so they all say, "he isn't a Jew".

Once again l was banned, rejected... alone.

l was born in 1958, in Nazareth. At the time, my father was in prison.

l remember visiting him there, when l was four.

For a while, we lived at the office of the Nazareth Communist Party.

Then we moved to Haifa.

Then the Six Day War. l'm beaten up, they break my arm,

because the Egyptians sank an lsraeli battleship.

Then, Czechoslovakia. My father's the Party representative

from 1968, two months before the invasion, until 1972,

then Moscow, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Turkey, ltaly.

And back to lsrael.

Here, a kick and a slap in the face from the army: "Dirty Arab!"

l was born in the village of Banne, in the Galilee, in 1953.

An ordinary Palestinian family: lots of brothers and sisters.

The story of Mordecai reminds me of another story.

There's this very, very poor man, who lives in a very, very poor place.

He's always asking God to do something about it.

lt's an old folktale. You must know it.

One day, God hears him. He brings the man up to Heaven

as a representative of his community.

There, the man sees things he has never seen before:

clouds, colours, stars.

Finally, he appears before God. God says: "So what do you want?"

But the man has forgotten what he's come for.

Somehow, this reminds me of our story.

After all he had seen, Mordecai forgot what he was fighting for.

He wanted to protect his people? Well, he did.

But he forgot that it was a war of survival.

Suddenly the war of survival turned into a cruel and bloody war.

A war without justification or end.

This is where l see a parallel between today and the past.

And that's why l'm angry and l hate Mordecai.

You and l are making this film hoping to prevent such slaughter.

Neither of us wants to see the cycle of revenge continue.

But it does. And we are both furious, and we express our fury in this film.

To everything, there is a season and a time

to every purpose under heaven.

A time to be born, and a time to die

A time to plant, and a time to uproot

A time to kill, and a time to heal

A time to break down, and a time to build up

A time to weep, and a time to laugh

A time to throw stones, and a time to gather stones together

A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing

A time to get, and a time to lose

A time to keep, and a time to cast away

A time to rend, and a time to sew

A time to keep silent, and a time to speak

A time to love, and a time to hate

A time for war, and a time for peace.

l'm just Zare Vartinyan.

Vartinyan is an Armenian name, you know.

My name is Simona Benyamini.

l was born in 1963

in the poor Moroccan quarter of Tel Aviv.

l don't remember much, because we moved when l was one.

But my mother says it was wonderful living there.

Then we moved to the suburbs of Tel Aviv.

When l was twelve, we moved to the wealthier part of town, in the north.

But l feel far more at home down in the south

in the Negev desert, the wilderness.

lt's such a glorious sun, the desert sun...