"Esther"
Review of the press by
Eytan, translation:
Docaviv 2026: Esther 02/06/2026 by Eitan in Docaviv 2026, Festivals, Israeli Cinema
A film about Esther Ofarim von Sell (everyone knows her as “Ofarim,” but in the end credits her name appears as “von Sell,” the surname of her second partner). It sounds like something aimed mainly at my parents, older people nostalgic for the past. It turns out that Shaked Goren, the film’s creator, has produced one of the most beautiful, moving, and intelligent films I’ve seen in quite some time.
The beginning of the film brings with it some concerns: Esther, the subject of the film, lives in Germany. She is willing to be interviewed by phone, but she refuses to be filmed. How do you make a movie about a woman who is unwilling to appear publicly?
Ah, that’s simple: Esther Ofarim von Sell is an international name. The film incorporates songs she sang in Hebrew, English, German, and Spanish. There is an enormous amount of archival material from which one can build her life story. So you do editing work, research, dig through the material and sift it, and build a timeline. The life story of a star. A biography. Standard.
Shaked Goren is smarter than that. He found the angle through which he would tell the life story of Esther von Sell: in a country that sanctifies tribalism, the value of the Jewish people as a chosen people, the national (not to say nationalist) value of the State of Israel as something to be proud of — is there room for an individualistic woman? A woman who does whatever she wants?
At the beginning of her career, she did have some luck. She had talent, a wonderful voice, but also emotional intelligence, and she also found a partner who took care of the business side of the show. But she didn’t compromise. She sang the songs she wanted, lived where she wanted (in Germany, when the memory of the Holocaust was still fresh!, for example), and made her art the way she wanted. She knew how to play the publicity game, and therefore she also posed for magazines countless times, but she walked her own path without apologizing. Even in her private life — she even gave birth at a relatively advanced age (over forty), when her partner was nearly twenty years younger than she was. Not conventional? Maybe. But this is Esther, and this is the Esther the film tells about.
At a certain point I began to feel that the film focuses mainly on Esther’s life then, and there is too little of today. And that’s quite clear, since Esther refuses to be filmed, and when there are flashes of interviews with the present-day Esther, they are heard mostly over the backdrop of European snow. Cold, lonely snow. Individualism is also loneliness. That is the price.
And then comes the end. The contemporary Esther (more or less) does appear physically after all. Maybe there is room in today’s Israel for such an individualist. Maybe young Israel has already matured, and maybe there is room in it for someone who doesn’t walk in line.
I, who live in Tel Aviv/Israel, think Shaked Goren is a bit too optimistic (too naďve?) when he presents his conclusion this way on screen, but maybe there is still hope for this wounded place.
Hebrew original:
article taken from here