A Netflix miniseries (four one hour episodes), Unorthodox provides a rare insight into the Hasidic, ultra-Orthodox Jewish community of Williamsburg in Brooklyn.
Based loosely on a true story, a recently married, pregnant Esther (Shira Haas) flees the oppressive lifestyle for Berlin. The insular Satmar community dispatch her young, naive husband Yanky and a world-wise, mercurial cousin Moishe to bring her (and, more importantly, the future baby) back to the fold.
Directed by Maria Schrader, Unorthodox is at its tender best when exploring Esther and Yanky’s struggles as newlyweds and the pressures and interference from his family. The more fictional narrative of Berlin and the city’s impact of the past, whilst engaging, has less focus and less substance: it spreads itself too thinly as Yanky, Moishe and Esther’s new-found friends (a convenient mix of Israelis, Arabs, Germans, gay, straight etc…) all have their ‘moments’.
But all in all, it’s a poignant, well-told story that, in not following a straightforward chronology of time, maintains interest and fascination throughout. (And it’s not everyday that you see a TV miniseries where Yiddish is, along with English, the main language).
Rating: 67%
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