Céline Roustan
Esther is about to become a woman! Her bat mitzvah is coming up and in true 13-year old misguided fashion, she has something special planned for her last Hebrew lesson with her quite attractive tutor. S/W alum Rebecca Halfon (Bodega) is back with her new film Esther, a charmingly awkward coming-of-age comedy about the pain and glory of entering teenhood.
“Life as a thirteen year old girl is really an experience without parallel”
Though a fictional story, Esther is heavily inspired by writer/director Rebecca Halfon’s personal experiences. Amused by the idea that in Jewish communities, the bat mitzvah rite of passage represents the moment you become a woman, when at thirteen most are as lost as they’ll ever be. “Life as a thirteen year old girl is really an experience without parallel”, the filmmaker explains. “It’s painful, hilarious, triumphant, and totally humiliating all at once. I wanted to write something that examined and celebrated that experience.”
Halfon decided to develop the humor of this juxtaposition into a comedic snapshot of life as a Jewish girl on the cusp of adolescence. The film gets even more personal, since she shot it in the neighborhood where she grew up and in the temple where she had her own bat mitzvah. Esther’s parents are actually her own, and the photographer is none other than Halfon herself.
Examining this adolescent experience through the prism of its titular character’s imminent milestone, the emotional core of the narrative is extremely relatable. This is the story of a young girl who is becoming more and more aware of the expectations society puts on women and is confused by what she sees in the media and what her parents tell her. She is also realizing that sex-appeal is an enviable tool.
Caught between being an adult and a child, pretending to act older than she is and refusing to acknowledge the potential consequences of her acts on others, this is the ultimate teenage girl life experience. Initially, the film was supposed to have a stronger early 2000s influence, but there are enough clues throughout the film that threw me back to the time where I had the same Orlando Bloom poster in my room (the Kingdom of Heaven one, I am more of a Viggo girl when it comes to LOTR).
Another not-so-minor detail that Halfon gets spot on is the removal of the braces. I can personally attest that when they get taken out, it truly makes you feel drunk with power and self-confidence and as a teenager, this newfound energy might get channeled in the wrong direction.
Ultimately, the film is a comedy based on how misguided Esther is and the awkwardness she creates in that last tutoring session and Halfon doesn’t hesitate in poking fun at all the small things her character does. Witnessing her setting her plan in motion is so entertaining, her awkward behavior making the interaction with the tutor even funnier, while the two performances nail the totally different pages their characters are on.
As the audience, we can see how Esther’s train of thought all makes sense to her and only her, while feeling like the tutor, we can’t help but notice just how inappropriate it all is. The quick cut to the bat mitzvah is even more pleasant juxtaposed to the chaos of the previous scene, and without describing the last scene, I will simply say that it is a quintessential 13 yo girl moment, perfectly wrapping the story.
As big fans of Halfon’s unique slice-of-life approach in her filmmaking, we’re extremely happy to host the World Premiere of Esther. Now in the writing stages of her first feature, a romantic comedy about radical climate change activists, we look forward to seeing her take on such a promising premise.