A friend of mine mentioned Unorthodox on a Facebook post and it immediately came up as a recommendation for me on Netflix. Set in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NYC I knew I had to watch this. Not only have I lived in NYC but I’ve also been around orthodox Jewish communities both there and in Gibraltar. In Gibraltar, there were many Jewish girls at my school and we quickly became friends, with so many similarities between their culture and my own Sindhi culture. My people too were displaced from their country as a result of war and politics; many lives were lost but nowhere near as many as the Jewish communities. Their community fascinated me and I was privileged to learn about some of the cultural traditions but this miniseries on Netflix gave a far deeper insight behind the closed doors of these huge families and their private lives.
It felt a little uncomfortable as there is a reason why this community keeps to themselves and I’ve always respected their privacy. However, their reasons for carrying on such traditions have started to reach a point where it no longer serves a pious purpose and also enforces a very patriarchal attitude towards women. The series revolves around Esty, a 19-year-old girl who frees herself and escapes the tightly knit Hasidic Jewish/ Satmar Hungarian community. Their lives revolve around the principles of returning to strict traditions to protect them from the demise of the Holocaust again and to repopulate their community with the six million lives that were lost. While this seems understandable, they also very much limit the opportunities for women and also forbid their sons too from learning too much about the outside world.
While my understanding of the culture and their ways grew, I could also see why it was unacceptable to limit personal freedoms and choices of young people in this world in the way that they do. What was beautifully done through this series was watching Esty tear herself away from this protective community without showing any anger or bitter resentment.
The series was entirely filmed in Berlin. I’d encourage watching the making of the programme too which follows the end of the series. It is quite extraordinary how scenes of NY streets and apartments were replicated in Berlin.
The Yiddish language too was also beautifully present throughout the scenes in NY. Something that reminded me how extraordinary the city is in that the use of the English language is so uncommon. My experience of growing up in Queens is one that is drastically diverse in comparison to my living now in Hertfordshire in England.
In Berlin, however, German was rarely spoken and Esty and the young students she encounters all speak in English. I loved this about the series. To have a representation of the communities that are rarely observed gives me a little hope that maybe representation of my own people would be more evident in Western television programming. I’m sure there are some writers out there who are ready to tell the story of my people, and I look forward to watching it.
So do watch this miniseries, it is well worth it.
Jessie Square-Eyes 