Eszter Balint

Who is Eszter Balint?

Eszter Balint is a singer, songwriter, violinist, and actress.

She first emerged as a child member of the avant-garde Squat Theatre troupe before making her cinematic debut in 1984 in director Jim Jarmusch's independent film Stranger Than Paradise. From there she seemed to drop out of sight for the remainder of the decade, not reappearing on-screen until 1990's little-seen Bail Jumper. Roles in The Linguini Incident, Woody Allen's Shadows and Fog and Steve Buscemi's Trees Lounge followed.

Balint's musical releases, Flicker and Mud, both produced by JD Foster, were praised by The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Billboard Magazine. In his review of Mud, Jon Pareles writes: "Miss Balint has her own film noir sensibility as a songwriter. She puts arty twists into back-alley Americana... but the cleverness is not the point. She slips inside her characters to project their restlessness and longing."

Balint has appeared on recordings by Michael Gira's Angels of Light, Marc Ribot's Los Cubanos Postizos, and John Lurie's Marvin Pontiac's Greatest Hits, Dayna Kurtz, and The Swans. She was a featured guest member of Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog throughout 2009.