THERE IS NO BETTER

When Esti (30), a poet and babysitter, faints in synagogue during a major holiday, she’s taken to the ER against her wishes by her enmeshed and out-of-touch Jewish family. Sent home without any answers, she sets out on a medical Hunger Games-esque journey to save her life. As her world begins to fall apart, she loses her bodily functions, her babysitting job, and the capacity to perform her poetry. She meets a cast of vivid (yet mostly clueless) characters as she journeys from appointment to appointment, bar to bar, and large Jewish-Indian family functions (made more chaotic by her pregnant sister-in-law). As Esti’s body terrorizes her, she tries to salvage the last remaining threads of joy in her life–but the denial of those around her, including her family, continues to haunt her. 

 

The film is narrated by Esti’s poetry, which helps the audience understand Esti’s struggle to translate this invisible illness to those outside her. Things come to a head when Esti refuses to get a vaccine, causing her brother to deny her visitation with her newborn niece. Esti becomes suicidal at this latest devastation, and her well-intentioned, yet misguided, brother commits her to a horrific mental institution. She is forced to confront her worst nightmare–she has fully lost control of both her body and her voice. 

 

Upon release, she is finally diagnosed with a slew of diseases. Validated, but bombarded with an egregious estimate for cost of care, she is accosted by this new level of capitalist horror. We see a montage of all the people Esti has met on her journey. Some will get better. But for some, there is no better. We close on Esti’s fallen face, not knowing which she will become.