Unorthodox 2020

Viewed all 4 episodes of this appealing and moving series and can easily say oy watch it if you can. The story is based on the memoirs of Deborah Feldman who left her strong and strict Orthodox Satmar Hasidic community and fled to Berlin. Here the film is true to the basics of her story but is filled with much fiction.The lead is played by the remarkable Shira Haas as the unhappy new wive Etsy (Esther for short) who is miserable in the severe life of a woman in the community. With the help of a non Jewish piano instructor she takes off for Berlin to begin a new life, followed by her husband (a sweet but clueless man) and his troubled bully, his cousin Moishe who are determined to bring her back to Williamsburg. I should add that Etsy is also with baby and is also in conflict with her mother who also fled the community years earlier and who is also in Berlin living with her female lover. The rituals of the Hasidic community are richly detailed especially the wedding ceremony between Etsy and her husband Yanky, and should prove fascinating to Jews and non-Jews alike. Filmed in Berlin (It looks like Minneapolis) and Williamsburg where I should add my family came from, including my scary Bubbie who owned a large brownstone there. The folks behind the making of the film are mostly women including the director Maria Schrader and it seems to me that much of what is happening on streaming is happily being made by women a promising move. All the performances are wonderful and again a note on how great this young actress Shira Haas is and she should be winning all the awards next year for this work. The other show I saw her in was the marvelous Israeli series Shtisel where she plays another young Hasidic woman of a different temperament. Although there are some plot twists and turns that didn't quite work for me, the final scene between Etsy and her husband Yanky was heart breaking and moving. See this one.