UNORTHODOX

Based on the true story recounted in Deborah Feldman’s 2012 memoir Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots, this Netflix show follows Esther ‘Esty’ Shapiro (played by the incredible Shira Haas) who grew up in a Hasidic Satmar community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She escapes her restrictive marriage and community, and flees to Berlin where her mother has been living, but of course, her past follows her.

There’s a thread of thriller as the men close in on her in Berlin, but at its heart, this is a coming-of-age story. In the first episode, there’s a scene where she follows a group of music students she has befriended to a lake in Wannsee. Everyone is swimming while Esty looks on; eventually, she wades into the lake fully clothed. In the water, she takes off her wig (called a sheitel; this is worn by married women) to reveal her shaved head. The scene is part rebellion, part baptism, which is what I guess Unorthodox is actually about. For her community, Germany is the root of their trauma, but for Esty, it represents her ticket to freedom.

I don’t think the point of Unorthodox is to show that these types of non-secular communities are ‘bad’, but rather to show Esty’s inability to assimilate into this life. At one point, telling her new friends why she left, she says, ‘God expected too much from me. Now I need to find my own path.’ Unorthodox should be on everyone’s must-watch list.

– Charis