TV Review: Unorthodox
Schrader, Maria, dir. and Anna Winger, prod. Unorthodox. Netflix, 2020.
Many would say that the purpose of life is to be one's most authentic self. Though in a tight-knit Hasidic community, that can be impossible to do. Unorthodox, the 2020 Netflix mini-series, follows 19-year-old Esther Shapiro's escape to Berlin from Williamsburg, New York. Her backstory unfolds as the series progresses, revealing the real pressures on Hasidic women. The series is loosely based on Deborah Feldman's memoir, "Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots."
Esty has always been an outcast in her Hasidic-Jewish community. With an alcoholic father and a mother who left Williamsburg to "abandon" her, she's considered an orphan. Her aunt and grandmother raise her, desperate to marry her off to get her to fit in. Esty is even more unusual because she plays piano, learning from a non-Hasidic tenant of her father's in exchange for rent. She was finally married to Yanky, hailing from a respected Orthodox family. Children are expected shortly after the marriage, though Esty is unable to have sex with Yanky without excruciating pain. They desperately try while Esty painstakingly practices vaginal "exercises." The process becomes a humiliating ordeal- Yanky's mother and the whole community consider Esty inept, isolating for her inability to conceive a child. Esty, mortified, tries to be a better wife, and even gives up the piano. She finally discovers she is pregnant, though immediately before telling Yanky, he demands to divorce her on the grounds of their childless marriage. Overwhelmed, she buys a plane ticket to Berlin, with the help of her piano teacher. Esty's estranged mother, now in Berlin in a Lesbian relationship, had long since offered Esty a German passport.
Upon Esty's arrival in Berlin, she made new friends at a local music conservatory. She boldly asserts herself in the group, demonstrating her readiness to branch out from her oppressive roots. The music students give Esty a vitality completely contrasting any of the suffocating relationships in Williamsburg. She decides to become herself. In a breathtaking scene, she sheds her wig in the ocean, exposing her shaved head for the first time. Her exposed head entirely eschews Hasidic law, marking her new-found freedom. She embraces this new identity, and others perceive her hairstyle as a trendy statement. The taste for this life grows stronger- she tries on lipstick, goes clubbing, and even sparks up a romance.
Back in Williamsburg, Esty's mysterious disappearance maddens everyone. Yanky's family regrets the marriage to her, mentioning that Esty's mother left Williamsburg too. They all catch wind of her pregnancy and Esty's brazen choice to raise their baby alone. Yanky and his cousin, Moishe, embark to Berlin to retrieve Esty, but more importantly, the baby she's carrying. The community shuns members who leave, so Esty's departure demonstrates the fearless choice to abandon everything she ever knew.
Despite her firm rejection of Hasidism, she retains the value of motherhood, hoping to nurture her unborn child. It's astonishingly brave for her to pursue single-motherhood in a foreign city, a lifestyle that seems polar-opposite from where she came. She reconnects with her estranged mother with much resentment. When they reconnect, her mother tells her that leaving the community took Esty away from her, but a life of freedom outside Williamsburg is a happy possibility. Esty warms up to this idea and possible relationship with her mother. With new friends and a baby on the way, she realizes she cannot begin this new life without money. In her searches to find a way to sustain herself, she resolves to apply to the music conservatory's scholarship for "students from extraordinary circumstances." A career in music is a remarkable individualistic pursuit in a world where motherhood was the only ambition allowed. Unfortunately, her peer blunts tells Esty that she lacks the necessary talent and experience on piano. The facade of a new life seems to falter even more when Yanky and Moishe get closer to tracking her down.
Moishe grabs Esty while she's walking down a street and throws her in a van. He sits her down and gives her a gun, saying that she will kill herself if she doesn't return to her community. This threat, instead of faltering her, fuels her, even more, to establish her grounding in Berlin.
The series comes to a pivotal catharsis when Esty finally auditions- she surprises everyone by singing traditional songs in Yiddish instead of playing the piano. She reveals that Hasidic women cannot sing in public, and this moves everyone even more.
By facing herself in this way, the emboldened Esty demonstrates a significant pillar of self-actualization. Yanky, clearly gutted by the whole experience, cuts off his payot in an attempt to show his devotion, though she chooses to live her own life instead of his. By the end of the series, it's unclear if Esty will eventually return to Williamsburg. Regardless, her story in the bigger picture of Hasidic women is one of courage, passion, and independence.
