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Feature The Week In News
MARCH 17, 2016 | The Home Home OCTOBER 29, 2015Jewish | The Jewish
Upside Down and Inside Out
A Behind the Scenes Look at “Megillas Lester” By Baila Rosenbaum
H
ave you ever read a book and wanted to jump right inside and join the characters in their imaginary world? In “Megillas Lester,” an animated feature length film produced by KolRom, the main character gets to do just that. He joins the world of ancient Shushan and the people he meets are the well-known characters of the Purim story. Chananya (CJ) Kramer of Kol Rom Multimedia wrote and directed this Persian version of “The Wizard of Oz meets the Megillah” and it makes for a fun and wild ride that charms both children and adults. Doniel Lesterovitch, known as Lester, is your average Yeshiva kid who’s had the bad luck of drawing the job as producer for his school’s Purim performance. He’s under the gun because the performance is being scrutinized by a scary professor from the county’s Arts Department
who will make funding decisions based on how cultured a performance the school can produce. Lester lucks out, coming up with a winning script when a box of puff paints falls on his head – and he falls into another world. He finds himself in Achashveirosh’s court and promptly gets into big trouble. Inadvertently, he convinces Vashti to appear before the king and the whole Purim story is turned upside down. With Vashti in place and no Esther on the scene, who will save the Jewish people from Haman’s wicked plans? Lester has altered Jewish history and now he’s got to make good. He spends the rest of the film trying to eliminate Vashti and get the story back on track. But (spoiler alert…), as Mordechai so wisely tells him, “Hashem always puts the right people in the right place at the right time. It’s not up to you what
will happen in the end.” This entertaining, 65 minute animated film starts out with a bold caveat: “Warning! This is definitely not the Purim Story!” Thus armed, the viewer can be ready for some rollicking, good fun. The generous distribution of jokes and puns entertain on many levels and the characters are engaging and playful. In fact, I felt a little irreverent
Director Chananya (CJ) Kramer
enjoying the bad guys of the Purim story – some of them were downright endearing. Achashveirosh has an amazingly authentic Persian accent and a loving relationship with a horse named Hangover. Vashti has a penchant for natural herb smoothies and was perversely relegated to sitting on a folding chair next to Achashveirosh’s vast gold throne. Haman is constantly ha-
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