Unorthodox
The lockdown is taking a toll on me as I am sure it is on you too. I started writing a post on my top 5 favourite gender bender – Japanese and Korean dramas. Then my laptop started acting funny and it would be tragic if both Lulu and I were sans laptop in the current circumstances. I decided to give my laptop some rest for a couple of days and during that time I cleaned the fan and guess what the laptop is back to staying on without switching off, so yay! In the past two days I decided to finish watching a historical Korean show I’d started watching after Itaewon Class but I seem to have hit a road block with the series as I am finding it to be too dry and ghisa pita, wahi purana story. Usually people parallelly watch romedys when they are reading a heavy book or watching an emotionally taxing show. I need to watch emotionally taxing stuff just to complete viewing this Korean drama(Which I still can't bring myself to finish watching.). I have two more episodes to go but I decided to watch Unorthodox. I started watching it last night and finished it this morning and felt really upbeat after watching it. Hence I had to write you guys its review.
Series: Unorthodox
Language: English, Yiddish, German
Genre: Drama
You can watch it on: Netflix
Number of episodes: 4
Unorthodox is a miniseries based on Deborah Feldman’s autobiography. Esther known to people around her as Esty belongs to an ultra-orthodox Jewish community in Williamsburg, New York. The Satmar community was set up post World War II by the survivors of the war. This community wasn’t present before the war and instead is a result of the war and the people who started this community are mostly Hungarian Jews. This is a cloistered community where women are taught to become good wives and make a lot of babies – basically make up the 6 million lost to WWII.
Esty has always known she’s different from the people in her community. She has always had a sense of curiosity and zest for life which has been suppressed by her upbringing. Esty was raised by her grandparents, alcoholic father and aunt. On turning 18, Esty willingly accepts the idea of an arranged marriage. She meets Yanky and they agree to marry.
Marriage proves to be tough when Esty and Yanky are unable to consummate their marriage. A woman is taught to lie in bed and treat the husband like a king. The man should always be on top to face downward to the earth; the place where he came from and the woman must always face upward so she looks at the place where she was created; the man’s rib. Women have to check themselves to ensure they are “clean” before they get in to bed with their husbands. Just before the onset of their period, during their period and after their period until such time as they aren’t clean they cannot even touch their husband and even then can only do so after they go to the Mikvah and go through the mandatory ritual of purity. Basically every orthodox Jewish woman has to go to the Mikvah once every month. (I have very limited knowledge about the Jewish customs but from what I understand at least amongst the orthodox Jews, women are not allowed to read the Talmud or the Torah. I remember reading this in Acts of Faith by Erich Segal, in which one story arch is about an orthodox Jewish girl and I remember I loved her story too. Do read this book if you can.) On Sabbath day though, according to Talmud, a man has to pleasure his wife. In one scene Esty confronts her mother in law who constantly insists that something is wrong with Esty to which Esty responds that with the lack of any pleasure the act only becomes a task and quotes the Talmud to which her MIL says she ought not to be reading it. Like in most cultures Esty’s cycles are monitored by her MIL and SIL who are constantly up her case about her not doing something right. Fun Fact: I have friends who have been subjected to similar scrutiny. One friend had to call her MIL the moment her period started. The MIL tabulated her cycle data to ensure there was no discrepancy in her cycles. When she found no discrepancy she would call her son to confirm that her DIL was in fact bleeding.
One Sabbath day Esty decides to leave. She has had this plan under her belt for the longest time but finally executes it when she realises she can’t take it any longer and she leaves for - Berlin! A very ironic choice of place for an orthodox Jew but she has her reasons and with that begins her story.
Once she reaches Berlin we understand why Esty is not a ‘normal’ orthodox Jewish girl barring her running miles away from her community of course. For someone who has remained in such a cloistered society where women are not supposed to be heard, where women can’t sing, where even a slightly loud voice is looked at with such contemptuousness you would expect to see her express shock at at-least a few cultural jolts. Instead you see this lovely girl who is ready to accept people exactly as they are sans any judgment and yet hold her own without discrediting or insulting her own background.
That’s when you realise that she will be fine because she has her head screwed tightly to her shoulders. I did find one particular scene shocking, hilarious and cute all at once – the one where she eats a ham sandwich and on discovering what she has eaten she rushes out of the café and after a bit comes back in and sits across from the person she is with and apologises thinking that she thought after eating ham she would either be sick or drop dead but is pleased to find neither happened.
You’ll see a few of these instances scattered throughout the series. You also get a glimpse of modern Israelites who are looking beyond the 6 million, Germans who speak of history in a matter of fact manner without disrespecting anyone and merely bent on looking to their own future.
I loved Esty and the friends she made along the way. In Covid times this is definitely a series I’d recommend if you are looking to watch something that’ll cheer you up. Give it a chance even if the first episode appears dark. I didn’t think the episode was too dark or depressing but a friend mentioned not watching the series because the first episode seemed a little depressing.
Rating: 4.5/5
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