Plot
You're an adopted orphan teenager in a violent world. After the sorrow you've known, your chief desire is to marry, raise a happy family and live a quiet life. Because of your astounding beauty, the future seem to offer you all the love your heart could hold. Suddenly your peaceful dreams are shattered when the king of the civilized world throws the mother of all feasts. In a drunken display of bravado he commands the queen to display herself before his princes. She refuses. Suddenly the Persian empire is without a queen. Thus begins the greatest beauty pageant history as the king's servants scour the entire civilized world for a lovely young virgin fit to replace the displaced queen. You go into hiding. You dress as a servant and try to look plain. but all to no avail, for the fame of your beauty is too large to hide. There is pounding at your door and suddenly your dreams no longer matter. You are wrenched from the arms of the only one who loves you for more than your astounding charms and you find yourself the person God as chosen.

Plot
Ahasuerus (Xerxes I), King of the Persians, whose empire now extends from India to Egypt after the defeat of the Babylonians, is holding a celebratory banquet for his people in the citadel of Susa to display his wealth and splendor. When he summons his attractive wife Vashti, to show off her beauty to the guests, the proud queen refuses to come. The king promptly bans her from ever entering his presence again, and gives orders for the most beautiful young virgins in the land to be brought to him. The young Jewess Esther, adopted daughter of her uncle Mordecai, is among the girls selected; they are told to beautify themselves in the royal harem and prepare to spend the night with the king. Esther succeeds in enchanting the king with her extraordinary beauty and charm, and he makes her his queen. The king promotes his loyal subject Haman - whose family is notably anti-Jewish - to the post of first minister of the kingdom. When the Jew Mordecai fails to kneel down before Haman like all the others, Haman's irritation with him is transformed into a deep hatred of the Jewish people. He manages to get the king to pass a law allowing the Jews of all countries to be persecuted and killed on a certain day. In his desperation, Mordecai seeks help from Esther. She places her life at risk by visiting the king without his consent, and then invites him and Haman to dine with her that evening. By revealing her Jewish origins Esther now succeeds in exposing Haman's evil plan to kill the Jews, and in obtaining the king's pardon for her people. Haman is duly hanged on the gallows he had built for Mordecai. Since the royal decree is irreversible, Ahasuerus passes another one allowing the Jews to defend themselves against their enemies, whom they end up by vanquishing. Many Jews now return to the Holy City and begin rebuilding Jerusalem.

Keywords: 5th-century-b.c., anti-semitism, biblical, character-name-in-title, esther, historical-fiction, historical-revisionism, iran, iranian, iranian-history

Plot
Mordecai, a Hebrew, is the gatekeeper at the palace of a great Babylonian king. A woman brings him an orphaned infant girl named Esther. Mordecai raises her as his own daughter, devoutly praying that God care for her. Years pass, and Esther has grown into a kind and beautiful young woman. King Xerxes has ascended to the Babylonian throne, with the evil Haman as his principal adviser. Xerxes has banished his wife, and sends for all of the young women in the kingdom so that he may choose a new wife. At first Mordecai is reluctant to send Esther to Xerxes. But God has chosen Esther for great things, and Mordecai prepares Esther for her meeting with the King. He warns her never to reveal that she is a Jew. Xerxes finds Esther beautiful, and makes her his queen. Over time, Esther helps King Xerxes to understand that in order to be a great king, he must be kind and generous. But evil is at work in the person of the king's second in command, Haman, who declares that everyone in the kingdom must bow down before him. Mordecai refuses, declaring that as a Jew he will bow to no one except his God. This enrages Haman, who vows to destroy all the Jews. Haman goes to Xerxes and falsely claims there is a plot among the Jews to overthrow the kingdom. Mordecai overhears Xerxes give Haman permission to hang all the Jews. Mordecai asks Esther to intervene with Xerxes on the behalf of the Jews. Queen Esther asks all of the Jews to fast for three days, knowing full well that her confrontation with the King and Haman will bring her own death. The brave Esther declares to the King that she is a Jew. She says that her people wish the King no harm. "We only want to worship our God in peace." Haman demands her instant death but Xerxes, filled with Esther's goodness and God's love, believes her. He orders Haman executed on the same gallows that he had erected for the Jews. King Xerxes embraces Esther with love and gratitude, and rewards the good Mordecai by making him his second in command.

Keywords: bible, character-name-in-title, independent-film