“UNORTHODOX”: From confinement to life
New York, the city that never sleeps. The future. But there’s a community in Williamsburg, New York, that proceeds slowly: the Ultra-Orthodox Hasidic community. This is where the 19-year-old woman, Esty, lives.
Esty feels trapped in a world of restrictions, especially for a woman, who, head down, is supposed to “deliver” children as soon as she gets in an arranged marriage with Yanky, another young member of the community. She feels trapped, so she decides to run away and go to Berlin.
Berlin is the city where Esty’s mum lives. Moreover, for the symbolism behind the story, it also figures a rakish city that is perfectly in contrast with the restrictive Williamsburg’s community.
The Orthodox community wants her back because, according to what emerges from their culture, the commitment and loyalty to the community are more important than Esty’s happiness.
While in Berlin, Esty develops a passion for music that she couldn’t explore in her own community.
There she discovers a world outside of the boundaries she used to know and through ups and downs, she guides the audience in a journey of a young woman driven by the desire to affirm her individuality.
How does she really figure out the cultural distance between the reality she were living and the life outside her community?
In the TV series UNORTHODOX, while in Berlin, Esty meets a professor from the conservatory and they have breakfast together. While being lost in her thoughts, she accidentaly eats a sandwich with ham inside and, right after realising it, she runs outside because she was taught that ham would have made her sick but actually nothing happens.
Another aspect is that the community is not allowed to have access to the Internet and consequently they are not capable of using smartphones or PCs. This clearly shows that while on the “outside” there is a world that is capturing new opportunities and embracing technologies. On the “inside” there is a culture strictly tied to its beliefs and traditions.
What the series has also been able to perfectly capture is the difference between the role of the man against the one of a woman. In a scene, Esty’ s mother-in-law tells her that her husband has to feel like a king in everyday life and in bed. However, when Esty asked if she would consequently be a queen, she didn’t get an answer.
Esty is very different from all the cultures and people she approaches in Berlin. This means that none seems to understand the set of norms and traditions in her life.
Unorthodox?
A reflection emerging from the series is related to the word “Unorthodox”. To become Un-Orthodox is not as easy as Esty thought. Her roots will forever be with her, she will never stop singing songs from her culture. She will never feel totally comfortable wearing jeans and changing to the point of denying her culture.
She strives to stop practicing her culture and fly to another country, but the “Un” will never split from “Orthodox”. Will this always remain part of her identity?
Still, Esty makes the audience believe that she will make it.
“I can’t bear the thought of living an entire lifetime on this planet and not getting to do all the things I dream of doing, simply because they aren’t allowed. I don’t think it will ever be enough, this version of freedom, until it is all-inclusive. I don’t think I can be happy unless I’m truly independent.” – Esty Shapiro.
