Saturday's Netflix & chill - Alissa Musumeci
Esther, known as Esty, decides to leave Williamsburg for Berlin. A year earlier, she had been given as a wife to the young Yanke Shapiro, who decides to ask for a divorce as they are unable to have children. Flashbacks reveal that her father is a drunkard, her mother lives in Berlin, and the poor nineteen-year-old has received a very religious upbringing from her grandparents. With the help of her piano teacher Viviane, Esty manages to get the papers and money she needs to escape from this life that doesn't suit her. Yanke, on learning that his wife is carrying his offspring, decides to do everything in his power to find her. When he arrives in the German capital, he soon realizes that Esty is not cut out for the Satmar community.
This Netflix series released this year is inspired by Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots. This autobiographical book tells the story of the author, Deborah Feldman, who broke her ties with the Orthodox Jewish community to pursue her dreams. In Unorthodox: backstage, the writer talks about what prompted her to agree to collaborate with Anna Winger and Alexa Karolinski, the mini-series' directors. Deborah Feldman explains that her story is not based on the faith we have in God and religion, but on the fact of not being able, at any time, to express oneself and be free to choose the options for one's future. It's a situation that many Jewish girls have gone through or are still going through today, and it was important for the writer, but also for the directors, to open young people's eyes to certain current situations.
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It's important to know that the Satmar community is fairly recent. It was founded by Eastern Jewish survivors of Nazi extermination, who immigrated to the USA at the end of the Second World War. This lends enormous historical value to the series. Throughout the four episodes, we're treated to brief but clear anecdotes about the period of the Third Reich. The settings, disguises such as sheitels for women and papillotes for men, and religious moments are depicted as they really are.
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Jeff Wilbusch, who plays Yanke's cousin Moishe, also comes from the Satmar community. He was a huge help to the whole production team, as he brought in real elements, especially from the point of view of a Jewish man. The story revolves around the suffering of a young girl, but without imagining the feelings, behaviors and experiences of the male side, this series would have been much less emotionally rich.
In short, this series tells a poignant and painful story, but it brings so many cultural and historical elements that you can't help but love it!
Write to the author: alissa.musumeci@leregardlibre.com
Photo credit: © Netflix
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