ESTHER (aka Hadassah - The Hidden One)

Created by Meneka Das, The Pitch 2020

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Description

London 2064. ESTHER is a young mixed race police officer working under the command of HAMAN, head of the Transhuman Force who rule the city with his cohorts. Except for the rebels of Zone 14 under the leadership of MORDECAI, who dare to fight back Mordecai urges Esther to join the rebels, ‘who knows you were born for such a time as this’ but Esther is still fearful. Mordecai reminds her that she hasn’t been given a spirit of fear but of love, power and a sound mind and the power is within her - all she has to do is believe. But when Haman shoots a little child for stealing just a loaf of bread Esther steps up to protect the boy and that decision of courage transports them into a field of cherry blossom. In that moment Esther sees hope…which connects her with the super power to time travel. She returns to join Mordecai in the fight for justice. But to defeat Haman, Esther must go back in time before Haman became transhuman. Surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses and holding the sword of the word Esther steps into the final battle with Haman.

Biblical Connection

This adaptation is taken from the book of Esther, who under the guidance of her uncle Mordecai hid the truth about her Jewish roots but when Haman threatens to annihilate the Jewish people and kill Mordecai, she steps up to protect her people. To me Esther is a super hero of her time and her transition from fear to courage is something I found inspiring. Hidden within us all is a super hero even the small things we do could make all the difference in our world. I have watched shorts on the Pitch and some are visually so bold - seems that there is no limits to what the Pitch can do so I decided to visualise big! A dystopian setting offers me the freedom to imagine cinematic possibilities, meets martial arts. I grew up watching martial arts film and to go back to an ancient art of fighting for the final battle for me is so exciting Also the setting deepens the metaphoric parallels in the story such as the transhuman nature of Haman to a hardened heart. And the use of swords again parallels the spiritual weapons in the Bible for pulling down of strongholds.