Esther (The Bible Collection) (DVD) / teleplay by Sandy Niemand ; directed by Raffaele Mertes.

LUX VIDE, Beta Film and QUINTA present a LUBE Production in association with RAI UNO, France2, Antena3, ARD, MTM, CzechTV, NCRV and BSkyB. Casting by Jeremy Zimmermann ; music by Carlo Siliotto ; edited by Alessandro Lucidi ; costume designers, Simonetta Leoncini, Giovanni Viti ; production designer, Paolo Biagetti ; director of photography, Giovanni Galasso ; line producer, Paolo Lucidi ; supervising producer, Paolo Piria ; produced by Lorenzo Minoli ; teleplay by Sandy Niemand ; directed by Raffaele Mertes.

Cast: Louise Lombard, F. Murray Abraham, Jűrgen Prochnow, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Baker, John Hollis, Umberto Orsini, Phil Davies, Christopher Ettridge, Natasha Williams, Ornella Muti.

Esther is a 1999 American-Italian-German television film directed by Raffaele Mertes and starring Louise Lombard as Queen Esther, F. Murray Abraham as Mordechai, Jürgen Prochnow as Haman, Thomas Kretschmann as King Achashverosh and Ornella Muti as Vashti.-- (from Wikipedia)

Following the conquest of Babylon the King of Persia gives a banquet for his people at which he requests the presence of his wife Vashti. As she refuses the King's demand Ahasuerus disowns Vashti and goes in search of her replacement. In his harem he meets the young girl Esther who immediately captivates him with her charm and beauty. Unaware of her Jewish heritage King Ahasuerus falls in love with Esther. Esther then reveals to Ahasuerus that she is Jewish and asks him to show her people mercy because of a planned genocide of the Jews by the King's right-hand man Haman. In doing so she saves the lives of many innocent people and paves the way for their return to Jerusalem.--(from Amazon.com)

Rating: M.

DVD format: NTSC, Dolby stereo, colour.