'' Esther Kahn '' is the first English-language film by the French director Arnaud Desplechin . It premiered at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival but was not distributed to the United States for two years until it played in New York City in 2002 . Deplechin adapted the screenplay with regular collaborator Emmanuel Bourdieu from a short story by Arthur Symons of the same name from his book '' Spiritual Adventures '' . It stars Summer Phoenix as Esther and Ian Holm as her friend and teacher , Nathan Quellen
2000 Cannes Film Festival
2000 Cannes Film Festival
Esther Kahn