Forgiveness (2008 film)

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Forgiveness, also known as Esther's Diary, is a 2008 American drama about the Holocaust directed by Mariusz Kotowski with a screenplay by Allan Knee. The film follows two best friends from 1940s Poland, a Catholic girl named Apollonia Kowalski and a Jewish girl named Esther Blumenfeld, whose lives are torn apart by World War II and the Nazi camps. After the war, both families move to the United States but remain distant from each other.

Many years later, Apollonia’s daughter Maria Patterson and Esther’s daughter Sarah Blumenfeld are successful professionals who still carry memories and tensions from their mothers’ pasts. Esther dies and leaves a memoir about her experiences in the camps. A long-hidden secret about Apollonia comes to light, which helps heal the rift between the families and brings Maria and Sarah into each other’s lives. The story unfolds through a fictional memoir, using archival footage from Auschwitz-Birkenau and other historical sources.

The film was shot in Austin, Texas, in August 2007. It premiered on April 26, 2008 at the Polish Film Festival of Los Angeles. After festival screenings through 2008 and 2009, director Kotowski re-edited the film to emphasize the Holocaust story and re-released it under the title Esther's Diary in 2010. The DVD was released in September 2010. Cast includes Juli Erickson, Shelley Calene-Black, Sydney Barrosse, Jaime Goodwin and Wilbur Penn. The production company is Bright Shining City Productions.

Critics noted the film’s focus on complex, independent women. The Jerusalem Post described it as a complex puzzle where pieces fall into place, while the Jewish Journal highlighted how the story centers on the relationships between its female characters, despite its Polish origins.