Unorthodox is an extraordinary Yiddish-language drama about a young Hasidic woman from the very insular Satnam ultra-orthodox Jewish community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Consigned to an unhappy marriage and a community that does not support her as an individual, she escapes to Germany where her exiled mother lives. German Nazis, of course, are the raison d'etre of the Satnam community, arising as a reaction to the Holocaust, turning inward to find solace in Judaism and repopulate the Jewish race. The heroine Esty learns to find her solace in secular music (and in the fitting ending, Jewish music). That tension between cosmopolitan, diverse, and secular modern Berlin and her former life in Williamsburg is a driving force. It's a well researched look at a community that is loathe to air its dirty laundry.
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