New Netflix miniseries Unorthodox tells the story of a young woman breaking out of her orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn to begin a new life in Berlin. Creators Anna Winger and Alexa Karolinski tell Vogue how they managed to depict this world, still unknown to many of us, in such a sensitive way.
It is a subject hardly touched by popular entertainment: the escape of a member of the ultra-orthodox Jewish community into the secular world. Author Deborah Feldman went through this experience herself. The 33-year-old grew up in the Hasidic community of Williamsburg, New York. In 2009, Feldman left her husband and that life, which didn’t leave much room for self-determination, and fled with her young son to Berlin. Four years later, she published her biographical work, Unorthodox. The book became a worldwide success — and is now a Netflix production.
The four-part miniseries directed by Maria Schrader, now available to stream on Netflix, tells the story of Esther ‘Esty’ Shapiro, impressively played by young acting talent Shira Haas. Esty, just like Feldman, breaks out of her arranged marriage and the strict rules of the Hasidic community in Williamsburg, and takes a flight to Berlin to start a new life there. She gets rid of her wig, applies for a job at a music academy, wears jeans and makes friends from all over the world. Even if most of Esty’s experiences are fictitious and don’t precisely follow the storyline of the book, the series convinces through a meticulously detailed authenticity. The filmmakers wanted to provide a realistic insight into a foreign culture — on all levels. That’s why the New York scenes of Unorthodox were all shot in Yiddish, all Jewish/Hasidic characters were cast with Jewish actors, and Jewish protagonists and advisors were used not only in front of the camera, but also behind it — a consequence many productions about Jewish experiences are lacking.
The captivating power of the series is due in part to the very convincing, thoughtfully selected casting (including Amit Rahav as Esty’s husband Yanky and Jeff Wilbusch as his cousin Moishe), and details such as the careful set and costume design. Most of the clothes, including Esty’s wedding dress, were bought secondhand.
For the release of Unorthodox, we met with the creators of the series: British-American screenwriter Anna Winger (Deutschland 83) and German-Canadian filmmaker Alexa Karolinski (Oma & Bella). They tell us how they managed to research a highly sensitive topic usually kept behind closed doors, what fascinated them about the community and what kind of reaction they hope to get with Unorthodox.
Read the article by Maria Hunstig in Vogue.