Netflix Series Review: Unorthodox
Waking up this Independence Day, I thought about what this holiday meant and the deeper meaning of it outside of the beers, barbecue, and fireworks. Historically it is the ratification of the Declaration of Independence where the thirteen colonies broke away from British rule. Creating a document and obtaining signatures was a way to claim freedom. It seems kind of easy but then we have to understand this is one type of freedom. There are many other types of freedoms to be unleashed.
In Unorthodox, the main character is a woman named Esty from the Hasidic community in Williamsburg, NY. Personally I never knew about this community growing up in the suburbs of Houston, TX and found out about them through various Youtube documentaries. The Hasidic community is very archaic, strict, and by the scroll called Torah. Members of this community are not allowed to use social media, have a strict kosher diet, cannot freely have premarital relations with the opposite sex, and must adhere to the laws of their community. Due to their religion and culture being very streamlined, this community sticks to their own and rarely interacts with members outside of their little world. This series explores how this woman names Esty has the curiosity to venture outside of the Hasidic world.
The series is divided into four parts and it starts out with Esty collecting a few of her possessions and running away. Of course through watching the trailer for this series, the viewer knows that Esty is fleeing her life in Williamsburg and going to Germany. The whole fascination is to answer the question “Why?”. Even though the Hasidic community is portrayed by the media as patriarchal and inhospitable for the modern independent woman, why does this one particular woman named Esty take that step to run away? What is her deal? Why don’t the other married women run away? What is her story?
Her story unfolds through flashbacks throughout the series. It turns out that her mother has also left the Hasidic community in the past to be with her non-Hasidic lover. The mother moved to back to Berlin to live a life away from the orthodoxy. It is revealed that she leaves Esty some immigration paperwork that gives her citizenship in Germany in case Esty ever wants to leave the Hasidic community as well. In the flashback, teenage Esty is cold towards her mother when she gives her the paperwork and Esty asserts that she is happy where she is and will never leave. The viewer knows that this changes and cannot help but smile at Esty and say to the TV screen silently “but you will you crazy girl, stop being so rude to your mom”.
Esty does leave after a year of her arranged marriage to her awkward man-child husband Yanky. She realizes that there is much more to her than being someone’s wife and someone’s mother. Even during her first meeting with Yanky she does tell him that she is different. I don’t know at that time if Esty knew what she meant by that word “different” or why she said that randomly to her future husband. I think it was at this point she was becoming self-aware of how she did not actually fit inside of this conformist community but did not know what to do with this new information so like everybody else, she just let others decide her life for her.
However after a little growing up, she realized that this way of living was not for her. She wanted to make her own decisions. She wanted to love how she wanted to without unsolicited advice from her in-laws and the Kallah teacher. With the help of a piano teacher who lives as a tenant in her father’s property, Esty arranges a secret escape to Germany.
When she first arrives in Berlin, she is too nervous to face her mother so she walks around and takes in her new and different surroundings. The scene where she arrives in Germany is reminiscent of Amish In The City because she is still wearing her sheitel (married Jewish woman wig) with the modest librarian outfit of a boxy long skirt and a turtleneck. Aside from her appearance, Esty just looks confused an in awe of the human interactions around her. She enters a coffee shop to get a drink and then follows this cute musician guy to a music conservatory. Esty is fascinated by performances and lifestyle of the artists. It is seen on her face how she finally has found a place where her true different self fits. She quickly becomes friends with the musicians and they go to the beach. While in the water for what it seems like the first time fully clothed, Esty takes off her wig and lets it float away. This seems emotional for her and as the viewer you cannot help but feel happy for her. It is an abdication of her religion if you want to look at it from that dramatic point of view. It is her way of saying, “I will no longer conform or follow, I just want to be seen”.
While Esty is finding her place in Germany, back in Williamsburg her husband receives a call from her gyno about her positive blood test results. Esty is pregnant. After discovering she has run away, the Hasidic community did put out search parties but after this news of a baby on the way the search for her gains more fervor. This part made me roll my eyes when the Rabbi was like we HAVE to find this woman because she is with child. Is she not important or worth seeking without child?
Yanky and his creepy playboy cousin Moishe set out to find Esty in Germany. They terrorize her mom who has no idea that Esty is in the same city. Examples of toxic masculinity are seen in their parts of the series. Moishe finally finds her dancing with a musician at a nightclub. Instead of yanking her out of the club on the spot like the misogynist he is, Moishe creeps up on her the next day and tries to emotionally blackmail Esty. He tells her that since she is with child she needs to come back to Williamsburg and is a traitor to Judaism if she stays in Germany. He tells her that she will not survive and will be a bad mother. This riles up Esty emotionally for a short bit but then she decides to run to her mom’s apartment where she is met with open arms. There she learns the truth about the circumstances of why her mom had to leave. Esty makes the choice to stay in Germany and to keep her baby.
Overall this series is dramatic, poignant, emotional, and the cinematography is on point. There have been many documentaries in social media about people’s escape from Hasidism but the thing that makes Unorthodox different is its ability to tell a story. It is the story of one woman named Esty who wants the opportunity to find herself, to find what makes her different, to live by her own rules. To do all that she has to liberate herself from those who try to rule her way of life in the name of religion. Sounds a lot like my friend America ;)