esther kahn be a young jewish woman live in an overcrowded and jewish ghetto in 19th century england . she be surround by loom and oppressive and dreary and featureless and worn brick architecture and narrow sidewalk and street and black out window and and horde of black and brown jacketed crowd . she live in a tiny apartment with her large family whom operate a clothes shop within the apartment . a child and she work and have no privacy and wore colourless clothing and share a bed and and remain silent to avert the mockery of her mother and sibling who ridicule her for mimic them out of boredom . a a young woman and her life remain the same she have no privacy and live in a state of mental and physical hebetude and lethargy and inertia and exude a blank and featureless expression and be clothe in plain and unremarkable clothing and and be continuously oppress and dwarf by the grey and mundane and massively imposing building and and narrow street and and narrow hallway and and narrow doorway and and her loud mouth mother and sibling and and the prosaic and banal lifestyle of her family . her only form of mental escape be the yiddish theatre . sit in the balcony and front row and leaning over the rail and there be a vast space between her mind and the stage and a space that enable her to breathe and think and feel and and yearn . yet despite the freedom of think the open stage provide for esther and her face and body remain torpidly somnolent and impassive and dispassionate . the plain and common look summer phoenix brilliantly convey esther emotionless demeanour summer or esther do not convey any desire to want anything or anticipate anything . after an unusual explosive confrontation with her mother and esther finally decide to break free from the bleak life she be trap in . she be eventually cast in minor part in a few stage play and and meet nathan quellen and portray by quintessential british actor ian holm and who commence to teach esther the technical skill of act . from this point forward and esther begin a grueling dual journey of learn how to act and learn how to feel . she begin experience emotion she never felt before and and she begin gain the experience she need to fully comprehend and wield the technical aspect of act . nathan walk her across the stage through the physical and emotional step of surprise and hesitancy and anger and disgust and self loathing and etc while she then begin walk through those emotion in her personal life . there be three truth and nathan tell her the truth of how a character reacts and the truth of how the actor would react and and the truth that a character and actor be not the same person . these technical step and three truth slowly deconstruct esther defense and lead her to two edify experience in the denouement of the film which mark the beginning of her freedom of thought and movement and and emotion . esther kahn be a technically challenging film to watch because of it odd and narrow camera shot and lackluster photo direction which convey the realistic lackluster setting of the ghetto and and summer phoenix characterless and insipid and unappealing portrayal which brilliantly convey kahn mental and physical hebetude and lethargy and lackluster nature . a must see film for people who want to learn the technical craft of act and and for people who appreciate minimalistic film and character study .