A four-part television series about a woman fleeing her marriage in the Satmar Hasidic Jewish community of Brooklyn and looking for a place for herself in Berlin is an unlikely market-grabber, but in an era with a literally captive at-home audience, Unorthodox has been trending on Netflix for three weeks now and racking up millions of views.
Music for the series comes from Paris-based Australian ex-pat Antonio Gambale, and in an era that has been proving challenging in the extreme to many arts professionals, he is quietly enjoying seeing his work being enjoyed by so many.
Paris is half a world away from suburban Canberra where Gambale grew up – attending the same college that also lays claim to having Jackie Chan in its alumni.
Two decades and a handful more years later, Antonio Gambale has built a sturdy career in a difficult industry as composer of scores and soundtracks for film, television and advertising.
While his resume includes some impressive arthouse credentials, including the Kar-Wai Wong feature The Grandmaster and Aussie independent film Joe Cinque’s Consolation, I’m most impressed that Gambale worked with composer Nathaniel Méchaly on the soundtracks for all three films in Liam Neeson’s Taken franchise.
Unorthodox centres on the performance of Israeli actor Shira Haas and a literal escape – her character Esther is fleeing a marriage in America and hiding herself in Germany. It is mesmerising, well-made television.
Read the article by Cris Kennedy in The Canberra Times.