The story of Queen Esther is found in the book of Esther in the Old Testament, but a recent novel, Hadassah: One Night With the King (2004) by Tommy Tenney with Mark Andrew Olsen, dramatizes her role is saving the Jews from genocide, an event now celebrated as Purim. Based on the novel, the film One Night With the King brings the story to the screen. Heavily littered with voiceovers to explain the context, the film begins with Hadassah (played by Tiffany Dupont), a young orphan girl who has been reared by Mordecai (played by John Rhys-Davies), a scribe at the capital of Persia in Susa. She hopes to go to Jerusalem when an opportunity arises. Meanwhile, King Xerxes (played by a very muscular Luke Goss) seeks to make war on the Greeks, who killed his father Darius in c. 486 bce. However, Queen Vashti (played by Jyoti Dagra), opposed to the war, humiliates Xerxes by refusing to attend a banquet. Accordingly, Xerxes arranges to kill her so that he can find a queen who will not challenge him. He therefore asks soldiers to round up the most beautiful women in the kingdom; he will spend a night with each until he finds someone acceptable. Mordecai urges Hadassah to apply and tells her to change her name to appear less Jewish; she then assumes the Persian name Esther. Once in the palace with other women, she is groomed and trained in protocol so that she will be ready for the important night; in the process, she attracts the interest of Hegai (played by Tommy Lister), the Royal Eunuch, for her intelligence. He gives her special attention to ensure that she will be chosen, as indeed she is. Court intrigue, however, complicates matters. To pay for the war, Prince Admatha (played by John Noble) proposes to kill all the Jews in the kingdom and confiscate their possessions, as many are affluent, having brough great wealth to the kindom. Although Xerxes rejects his proposed genocide, he hopes to do so anyway as regent of the kingdom as soon as Xerxes goes off to war. Esther then tries desperately to stop the bloodbath. She first reminds Xerxes that Mordecai saved his life but remains unrewarded, so Xerxes honors him to the chagrin of Admatha. Finally, she makes a personal plea and is successful. A voiceover then notes that her success is remembered thereafter. Although the story is well known to Jews, the film clearly makes the point that Iranians and Jews have in the past lived harmoniously together, and the Jewish nation owes a lot to the Persians and vice versa. Whether the film will be exhibited in Iran, however, is a matter for conjecture. Unfortunately, the acting is wooden, and the dialog is drowned out by a pretentious filmscore. The film location is in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India, similar to Siddharta (1972), with a lot of Indian faces as extras. Yet another oddity is that the film has been released in November, not the week of Purim, which in 2007 falls on March 4. MH
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