Unorthodox
Director: Maria Schrader
Starring: Shira Haas, Amit Rahav, Jeff Wilbusch
Genre: Cult cult
In these most unusual of times it seems fitting that I should do my first ever TV review of a most unusual, but excellent, Netflix series. Unorthodox is the clever and fitting title for a miniseries (only four episodes) detailing the escape of pregnant Esty (Shira Haas) from the ultraorthodox Jewish community and her unhappy marriage in New York.
Esty herself is an unorthodox orthodox piano-playing Jew, with a secular and distant mother who also escaped the community and an abusive marriage to live in a gay relationship in Berlin.
You don’t have to have a Jewish heritage to appreciate that Unorthodox is excellent, unique and compelling, though I do, and it may help to appreciate a few nuances around custom and tradition. Nonetheless, ultraorthodox practices are so far removed from any Jewish understanding I have as to make them almost completely foreign to me.
Unorthodox is loosely based on a true story and a book, and features actors who themselves have Jewish heritages, including Jeff Wilbusch, who plays Moische Lefkovitch who tracks down Esty in Berlin. Wilbusch left the community when he was 13.
Despite an unlikely and unconvincing final episode, the series largely rings true as it deals with familiar topics of escape from abusive power structures and misogynistic cultures.
It’s curious to consider that Unorthodox will likely never be viewed by the community that it examines and will change nothing in that community. That’s just the nature of cults that by definition don’t embrace change or empower their adherents.
But for the rest of us, understanding that you don’t have to be officially self-isolating to feel isolated certainly provides perspective that may make our current circumstances seem tame in comparison.
Rating: 4 Stars of David
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