1 00:00:00,939 --> 00:00:03,189 The dictionary definition of trauma is: 2 00:00:03,189 --> 00:00:05,055 Severe emotional shock and pain, 3 00:00:05,055 --> 00:00:07,523 caused by an extremely upsetting experience. 4 00:00:07,523 --> 00:00:09,771 There is no set way to process trauma. 5 00:00:09,771 --> 00:00:12,873 But, in "Unorthodox," we see how two different communities, 6 00:00:12,873 --> 00:00:15,089 one in Berlin, and another in Brooklyn, 7 00:00:15,089 --> 00:00:17,671 cope with the tragedies that have shaped them. 8 00:00:17,671 --> 00:00:21,056 And, in turn, we learn ways to deal with our trauma. 9 00:00:21,056 --> 00:00:26,088 In Brooklyn, trauma forms 19 year old Esty's, 10 00:00:26,088 --> 00:00:27,990 and her community's, identity. 11 00:00:27,990 --> 00:00:30,673 The action follows the secretive Satmar community 12 00:00:30,673 --> 00:00:32,039 of Hasidic Jews. 13 00:00:32,039 --> 00:00:34,571 Established by a rabbi who had fled Satu Mare, 14 00:00:34,571 --> 00:00:37,055 in present-day Romania, during the Holocaust. 15 00:00:37,055 --> 00:00:39,854 The Satmar community does not mix with others. 16 00:00:39,854 --> 00:00:41,206 In "Unorthodox," 17 00:00:41,206 --> 00:00:43,505 at the head of the sex-segregated table, 18 00:00:43,505 --> 00:00:44,805 for Pesach dinner, 19 00:00:44,805 --> 00:00:47,690 an annual commemoration of the Jews who escaped slavery 20 00:00:47,690 --> 00:00:48,889 in ancient Egypt, 21 00:00:48,889 --> 00:00:51,055 Esty's grandfather gives his reasons why. 22 00:00:51,055 --> 00:00:52,689 [Grandfather] We tell ourselves 23 00:00:52,689 --> 00:00:54,258 the story of Passover 24 00:00:54,258 --> 00:00:56,638 to remind us of our suffering. 25 00:00:56,638 --> 00:00:58,422 [Narrator] The show celebrates 26 00:00:58,422 --> 00:01:00,290 the strong bonds of family and tradition, 27 00:01:00,290 --> 00:01:02,136 within Esty's community, 28 00:01:02,136 --> 00:01:03,789 where religious customs and prayers 29 00:01:03,789 --> 00:01:05,372 can take place safely, 30 00:01:05,372 --> 00:01:06,589 while deadly attacks 31 00:01:06,589 --> 00:01:08,838 on synagogues, and other venues frequented by Jews, 32 00:01:08,838 --> 00:01:10,555 rise, across the world. 33 00:01:10,555 --> 00:01:14,322 This community defies anti-Semitism, by living devoutly. 34 00:01:14,322 --> 00:01:16,040 We also see, in this scene, 35 00:01:16,040 --> 00:01:18,088 how Satmar Jews draw on past trauma, 36 00:01:18,088 --> 00:01:20,757 to make members scared of the big, bad outside. 37 00:01:20,757 --> 00:01:22,641 [Grandfather] When we trusted 38 00:01:22,641 --> 00:01:25,958 our friends and neighbors, 39 00:01:25,958 --> 00:01:28,409 God punished us. 40 00:01:28,409 --> 00:01:30,871 When we forget who we are, 41 00:01:30,871 --> 00:01:35,738 we invite God's wrath. 42 00:01:35,738 --> 00:01:36,954 [Narrator] The Holocaust 43 00:01:36,954 --> 00:01:38,356 caused PTSD in its survivors. 44 00:01:38,356 --> 00:01:39,889 Its impact lives on. 45 00:01:39,889 --> 00:01:42,041 As Auschwitz survivor, chemist, and writer, 46 00:01:42,041 --> 00:01:43,576 Primo Levi puts it: 47 00:01:43,576 --> 00:01:45,340 "Auschwitz is outside of us, 48 00:01:45,340 --> 00:01:47,539 but it is all around us, in the air. 49 00:01:47,539 --> 00:01:50,789 The plague has died away, but the infection still lingers, 50 00:01:50,789 --> 00:01:53,007 and it would be foolish to deny it." 51 00:01:53,007 --> 00:01:55,408 This generational trauma grows from the roots 52 00:01:55,408 --> 00:01:58,559 of Esty's family tree, and shapes Esty's personal identity. 53 00:01:58,559 --> 00:02:01,077 She is discouraged from exploring passions 54 00:02:01,077 --> 00:02:03,707 that contradict the community's values. 55 00:02:03,707 --> 00:02:05,841 Her piano lessons are so frowned upon, 56 00:02:05,841 --> 00:02:07,696 she must take them in secret. 57 00:02:07,696 --> 00:02:09,375 Her teacher, Vivian Dropkin, 58 00:02:09,375 --> 00:02:11,774 is derided as 'a shiksa,' or non-Jew. 59 00:02:11,774 --> 00:02:14,676 But interestingly, though the show never mentions it, 60 00:02:14,676 --> 00:02:17,173 Dropkin is a secular Jew. 61 00:02:17,173 --> 00:02:20,028 Despite her faith, her choices are not Jewish enough 62 00:02:20,028 --> 00:02:21,990 for Esty's devout community. 63 00:02:21,990 --> 00:02:28,540 Many Orthodox Jews believe that the way 64 00:02:28,540 --> 00:02:30,591 to undo the trauma of the Holocaust, 65 00:02:30,591 --> 00:02:32,140 is to repopulate. 66 00:02:32,140 --> 00:02:34,791 2013 research for the Pew Center 67 00:02:34,791 --> 00:02:38,256 shows that Orthodox Jews have a birth rate of 4.1, 68 00:02:38,256 --> 00:02:41,388 as opposed to the U. S. national average of 1.8. 69 00:02:41,388 --> 00:02:44,709 Esty totally believes what she's been taught to believe, 70 00:02:44,709 --> 00:02:46,022 later insisting, 71 00:02:46,022 --> 00:02:48,679 "We are rebuilding the six million lost." 72 00:02:48,679 --> 00:02:50,662 Jews killed in the Holocaust. 73 00:02:50,662 --> 00:02:54,141 [Grandmother] So many lost. 74 00:02:54,141 --> 00:03:05,329 But, soon, you'll have children of your own. 75 00:03:05,329 --> 00:03:07,540 [Narrator] Six million is no small sum. 76 00:03:07,540 --> 00:03:10,591 So, alongside the housework needed to keep her home tidy, 77 00:03:10,591 --> 00:03:12,445 and her husband, Yanky Shapiro, 78 00:03:12,445 --> 00:03:14,624 well fed and in perfectly ironed suits, 79 00:03:14,624 --> 00:03:17,376 Esty's job is to have as many children as possible. 80 00:03:17,376 --> 00:03:19,725 [Woman] You will have no leverage in this marriage, 81 00:03:19,725 --> 00:03:21,724 until there is a baby. Understand me? 82 00:03:21,724 --> 00:03:23,742 [Narrator] She is told that sex will give her husband pleasure, 83 00:03:23,742 --> 00:03:26,258 which, in turn, will give her exactly what she wants: 84 00:03:26,258 --> 00:03:29,359 what she has been told she wants... a baby. 85 00:03:29,359 --> 00:03:31,923 The problem with this way of dealing with trauma, 86 00:03:31,923 --> 00:03:33,941 as we see it through Esty's eyes, 87 00:03:33,941 --> 00:03:35,858 is, it creates a domino effect. 88 00:03:35,858 --> 00:03:37,524 There is a field of academic study 89 00:03:37,524 --> 00:03:38,807 called epigenetics, 90 00:03:38,807 --> 00:03:39,991 which deals with the concept 91 00:03:39,991 --> 00:03:41,642 of trans-generational trauma, 92 00:03:41,642 --> 00:03:43,809 or, the idea that trauma can be inherited. 93 00:03:43,809 --> 00:03:45,259 Some study suggests that DNA 94 00:03:45,259 --> 00:03:47,675 changes in response to horrifying experiences, 95 00:03:47,675 --> 00:03:49,908 and that, then, passes down generations. 96 00:03:49,908 --> 00:03:51,911 Whether through epigenetics or not, 97 00:03:51,911 --> 00:03:53,976 in "Unorthodox," traumatized parents 98 00:03:53,976 --> 00:03:56,328 unintentionally traumatize their children. 99 00:03:56,328 --> 00:03:58,744 Esty's grandparents are still, understandably, 100 00:03:58,744 --> 00:04:00,443 bereft by the Holocaust. 101 00:04:00,443 --> 00:04:02,861 Their son, Mordecai, is mentally unwell. 102 00:04:02,861 --> 00:04:06,261 As for Leah, her trauma comes, mainly, 103 00:04:06,261 --> 00:04:08,959 from not quite fitting the mold that's been set for her. 104 00:04:08,959 --> 00:04:11,775 Esty is tarred by her parents' pain. 105 00:04:11,775 --> 00:04:15,260 Now that she is a bride herself, she finds the rules troublesome. 106 00:04:15,260 --> 00:04:17,959 [Mrs. Shapiro] We shouldn't have agreed to this marriage. 107 00:04:17,959 --> 00:04:19,361 [Yanky Shapiro] Mommy, please! 108 00:04:19,361 --> 00:04:21,329 [Mrs. Shapiro] The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. 109 00:04:21,329 --> 00:04:22,695 [Narrator] When Esty tries to argue the case 110 00:04:22,695 --> 00:04:25,094 for her to be pleasured, rather than traumatized in bed, 111 00:04:25,094 --> 00:04:27,692 using scripture as evidence of God's will for it, 112 00:04:27,692 --> 00:04:29,108 she is shut down. 113 00:04:29,108 --> 00:04:31,628 [Yanky Shapiro] Women are not allowed to read the Talmud! 114 00:04:31,628 --> 00:04:33,625 [Narrator] This text is for men only, not for women's eyes, 115 00:04:33,625 --> 00:04:34,909 due to something known as 116 00:04:34,909 --> 00:04:37,893 "Kavod Hatzibur," or the dignity of the community. 117 00:04:37,893 --> 00:04:42,196 Esty's story shows how socially restrictive responses to trauma 118 00:04:42,196 --> 00:04:43,943 often unfairly muzzle women. 119 00:04:43,943 --> 00:04:47,260 Esty can't get away with half of what her cousin, Moishe, can. 120 00:04:47,260 --> 00:04:50,159 Moishe is a thief, a liar, an aggressive lout, 121 00:04:50,159 --> 00:04:52,160 with no consideration for others. 122 00:04:52,160 --> 00:04:54,760 Yet, his behavior seems rooted In self-loathing. 123 00:04:54,760 --> 00:04:57,659 His moral decay, his own trauma, 124 00:04:57,659 --> 00:04:59,328 is catching up with him, 125 00:04:59,328 --> 00:05:00,728 as he realizes, he has neither 126 00:05:00,728 --> 00:05:02,161 the commitment of one community, 127 00:05:02,161 --> 00:05:03,627 nor the tools of another. 128 00:05:03,627 --> 00:05:05,178 [Moishe cackles laughing.] 129 00:05:05,178 --> 00:05:06,560 [Narrator] Meanwhile, Yanky, 130 00:05:06,560 --> 00:05:07,960 a saint next to Moishe, 131 00:05:07,960 --> 00:05:09,564 ends up meting out trauma, 132 00:05:09,564 --> 00:05:10,992 through his childishly ignorant commitment 133 00:05:10,992 --> 00:05:12,893 to maintaining his community, 134 00:05:12,893 --> 00:05:14,460 by any means available. 135 00:05:14,460 --> 00:05:18,194 In Brooklyn, we see how trauma, 136 00:05:18,194 --> 00:05:20,279 sadly, sometimes begets more trauma. 137 00:05:20,279 --> 00:05:22,094 As Esty's mom puts it: 138 00:05:22,094 --> 00:05:23,828 [Leah] So much damage done in Brooklyn, 139 00:05:23,828 --> 00:05:25,612 in the name of God. 140 00:05:25,612 --> 00:05:27,493 All the rules, all the gossip. 141 00:05:27,493 --> 00:05:30,443 No wonder Esty can't stand it. 142 00:05:30,443 --> 00:05:32,843 [Narrator] Berlin, meanwhile, 143 00:05:32,843 --> 00:05:35,544 has a very different way of dealing with trauma. 144 00:05:35,544 --> 00:05:42,160 [Classical music.] 145 00:05:42,160 --> 00:05:43,512 "Unorthodox" presents 146 00:05:43,512 --> 00:05:45,311 Adolf Hitler's former stronghold 147 00:05:45,311 --> 00:05:46,994 as a liberal, diverse idyll, 148 00:05:46,994 --> 00:05:48,860 where people, especially the young, can do 149 00:05:48,860 --> 00:05:51,143 what they want, when they want, with whom they want. 150 00:05:51,143 --> 00:05:53,013 Once the epicenter of suffering, 151 00:05:53,013 --> 00:05:54,794 Berlin counters its past trauma 152 00:05:54,794 --> 00:05:56,059 by celebrating joy, 153 00:05:56,059 --> 00:05:57,660 and reclaiming some of its character 154 00:05:57,660 --> 00:05:59,944 that the Nazis tried to extinguish. 155 00:05:59,944 --> 00:06:01,345 This is the city 156 00:06:01,345 --> 00:06:04,260 that once saw the Golden 1920s of the Weimar Republic, 157 00:06:04,260 --> 00:06:06,291 when Marlene Dietrich rose to fame, 158 00:06:06,291 --> 00:06:08,214 cabaret was popular entertainment, 159 00:06:08,214 --> 00:06:10,530 and the Bauhaus art movement was founded. 160 00:06:10,530 --> 00:06:13,110 This social liberalism comes across in public displays 161 00:06:13,110 --> 00:06:16,278 of affection, that the naive and modest Esty is struck by. 162 00:06:16,278 --> 00:06:18,359 She is used to a traumatic sex life, 163 00:06:18,359 --> 00:06:20,309 that only ever happened in private, 164 00:06:20,309 --> 00:06:22,160 yet was discussed so publicly. 165 00:06:22,160 --> 00:06:24,178 In Berlin, the opposite is true. 166 00:06:24,178 --> 00:06:26,877 This is because pleasure, rather than procreation, 167 00:06:26,877 --> 00:06:28,310 is the goal. 168 00:06:28,310 --> 00:06:30,376 Esty begins to realize 169 00:06:30,376 --> 00:06:32,077 that the world is not as black and white 170 00:06:32,077 --> 00:06:33,531 as she has been taught. 171 00:06:33,531 --> 00:06:36,244 [Man] You could try to rescue Robert's attempt at a salad. 172 00:06:36,244 --> 00:06:37,594 [Narrator] The city's physical spaces 173 00:06:37,594 --> 00:06:39,944 are examples of how traumatic sites can be reclaimed. 174 00:06:39,944 --> 00:06:42,612 On Esty's first excursion with her new friends, 175 00:06:42,612 --> 00:06:44,194 she ventures upon what is, 176 00:06:44,194 --> 00:06:45,794 to her community back in Brooklyn, 177 00:06:45,794 --> 00:06:47,311 hell. 178 00:06:47,311 --> 00:06:49,127 [Man] When the Berlin Wall was up, 179 00:06:49,127 --> 00:06:50,744 East German guards shot anyone 180 00:06:50,744 --> 00:06:53,177 who tried to swim across this lake to freedom. 181 00:06:53,177 --> 00:06:55,345 [Esty] And now? 182 00:06:55,345 --> 00:06:57,881 [Man] Now, you can swim as far as you like. 183 00:06:57,881 --> 00:07:02,845 [Narrator] It might be the location of trauma, 184 00:07:02,845 --> 00:07:05,146 but it's not the source of trauma. 185 00:07:05,146 --> 00:07:07,278 Unlike the Mikvah that blessed Esty, 186 00:07:07,278 --> 00:07:09,929 a secular body of water cannot bless, or condemn. 187 00:07:09,929 --> 00:07:11,142 Only people can. 188 00:07:11,142 --> 00:07:13,897 Of course, some people will never be able to find joy 189 00:07:13,897 --> 00:07:16,145 in the same waters Hitler gazed across, 190 00:07:16,145 --> 00:07:18,662 as he decided to end millions of Jews' lives. 191 00:07:18,662 --> 00:07:19,946 But in this scene, 192 00:07:19,946 --> 00:07:21,560 Esty has an opportunity to help 193 00:07:21,560 --> 00:07:23,045 begin her new life, within its waters. 194 00:07:23,045 --> 00:07:24,779 Esty removes her wig in this lake, 195 00:07:24,779 --> 00:07:27,229 in a more extreme version of the breakup haircut. 196 00:07:27,229 --> 00:07:28,932 While the shorn hair beneath it 197 00:07:28,932 --> 00:07:30,376 is the imposition of a sect 198 00:07:30,376 --> 00:07:32,278 that sees women's hair as so tempting to men 199 00:07:32,278 --> 00:07:33,761 it must be shaved off, 200 00:07:33,761 --> 00:07:36,064 it is also an uncanny and unintended reminder 201 00:07:36,064 --> 00:07:38,078 of the ways in which Esty's ancestors 202 00:07:38,078 --> 00:07:39,843 were dehumanized by the Nazis, 203 00:07:39,843 --> 00:07:42,378 their heads shaved in the concentration camps. 204 00:07:42,378 --> 00:07:44,479 [Esty panting.] 205 00:07:44,479 --> 00:07:47,212 [Narrator] Without this wig, she can float in the water, 206 00:07:47,212 --> 00:07:48,865 free to forget her trauma, 207 00:07:48,865 --> 00:07:51,027 and all the rules and regulations that led to it. 208 00:07:51,027 --> 00:07:53,027 The lake scene proves how 209 00:07:53,027 --> 00:07:54,695 expression of individual freedoms 210 00:07:54,695 --> 00:07:57,880 can pay tribute to past generations who were once restricted. 211 00:07:57,880 --> 00:07:59,495 By swimming in the waters, 212 00:07:59,495 --> 00:08:00,899 Esty and her friends 213 00:08:00,899 --> 00:08:03,596 do what many from previous generations could not. 214 00:08:03,596 --> 00:08:05,547 Joy is, for them, a far more useful 215 00:08:05,547 --> 00:08:07,566 tool of remembrance, than guilt. 216 00:08:07,566 --> 00:08:09,413 [Man] A lake is just a lake. 217 00:08:09,413 --> 00:08:11,162 [Narrator] Esty's new friends 218 00:08:11,162 --> 00:08:13,230 prove that trauma comes in many forms. 219 00:08:13,230 --> 00:08:15,478 Each carries with them their own difficult histories. 220 00:08:15,478 --> 00:08:17,030 Some come from war-torn countries, 221 00:08:17,030 --> 00:08:18,194 have lost loved ones, 222 00:08:18,194 --> 00:08:20,344 or grew up gay in homophobic countries. 223 00:08:20,344 --> 00:08:22,263 The friction between Esty and Yael hinges 224 00:08:22,263 --> 00:08:24,933 on how their shared trauma is dealt with so differently. 225 00:08:24,933 --> 00:08:27,566 [Esty] My grandparents lost their whole families 226 00:08:27,566 --> 00:08:28,779 in the camps. 227 00:08:28,779 --> 00:08:30,762 [Yael] So did half of Israel. 228 00:08:30,762 --> 00:08:33,095 But, we are too busy defending our present, 229 00:08:33,095 --> 00:08:35,079 to be sentimental about our past. 230 00:08:35,079 --> 00:08:36,362 [Narrator] Both Jewish, 231 00:08:36,362 --> 00:08:38,649 Esty and Yael's ancestors may have very well died 232 00:08:38,649 --> 00:08:40,930 alongside each other in the death camps, 233 00:08:40,930 --> 00:08:42,584 but their responses to this trauma 234 00:08:42,584 --> 00:08:44,396 couldn't be more different. 235 00:08:44,396 --> 00:08:47,047 Yael used music as an escape from military duty, 236 00:08:47,047 --> 00:08:49,046 and its inevitable traumas. 237 00:08:49,046 --> 00:08:52,429 With her violin in hand, she expresses herself as she chooses. 238 00:08:52,429 --> 00:08:55,978 Esty quickly learns that, in Berlin, 239 00:08:55,978 --> 00:08:57,081 men and women, 240 00:08:57,081 --> 00:08:58,145 secular Jews, 241 00:08:58,145 --> 00:08:59,728 Muslims, Christians, and others 242 00:08:59,728 --> 00:09:01,110 play music together. 243 00:09:01,110 --> 00:09:03,178 The only rules are that they turn up, 244 00:09:03,178 --> 00:09:04,932 stay focused, and collaborate. 245 00:09:04,932 --> 00:09:07,861 Esty no longer muffles her own screams, 246 00:09:07,861 --> 00:09:09,812 but unleashes her pain and trauma, 247 00:09:09,812 --> 00:09:11,894 using the creativity she has always longed 248 00:09:11,894 --> 00:09:13,347 to be able to wield. 249 00:09:13,347 --> 00:09:15,867 Using Yael's unfiltered freedom as a template, 250 00:09:15,867 --> 00:09:18,894 Esty finally expresses her personal identity. 251 00:09:18,894 --> 00:09:23,012 [Singing] 252 00:09:23,012 --> 00:09:26,630 [Narrator] The Berliners of "Unorthodox" 253 00:09:26,630 --> 00:09:27,404 haven't forgotten their trauma, 254 00:09:27,404 --> 00:09:30,649 or that of the city they live in, 255 00:09:30,649 --> 00:09:32,795 but have found ways to deal with it, 256 00:09:32,795 --> 00:09:35,883 reclaiming Hitler's land for their own, joyful purposes. 257 00:09:35,883 --> 00:09:38,379 Wanting personal freedoms for everyone, 258 00:09:38,379 --> 00:09:39,645 especially women. 259 00:09:39,645 --> 00:09:42,946 Using creativity as a conduit to exorcise their trauma. 260 00:09:42,946 --> 00:09:45,746 That is not to say Brooklyn is totally opposite. 261 00:09:45,746 --> 00:09:47,779 Like everything else in the show, 262 00:09:47,779 --> 00:09:49,778 from the costumes to the sets, 263 00:09:49,778 --> 00:09:52,829 "Unorthodox" handles trauma sensitively and beautifully. 264 00:09:52,829 --> 00:09:55,195 No one is outright good, or outright evil. 265 00:09:55,195 --> 00:09:57,033 Some people struggle in Berlin, 266 00:09:57,033 --> 00:09:59,898 in the same way others thrive in Brooklyn. 267 00:09:59,898 --> 00:10:02,162 Human trauma is complex and individual, 268 00:10:02,162 --> 00:10:04,012 not black and white. 269 00:10:04,012 --> 00:10:05,879 In "Unorthodox," we see 270 00:10:05,879 --> 00:10:08,579 the classic tale of a Jew escaping European trauma 271 00:10:08,579 --> 00:10:10,363 and captivity, in reverse. 272 00:10:10,363 --> 00:10:12,565 In Berlin, Esty discovers 273 00:10:12,565 --> 00:10:14,400 that undoing trauma can be as simple 274 00:10:14,400 --> 00:10:15,681 as going for a swim, 275 00:10:15,681 --> 00:10:17,428 communicating with outsiders, 276 00:10:17,428 --> 00:10:19,198 and singing her heart out. 277 00:10:19,198 --> 00:10:20,532 All on her own terms, 278 00:10:20,532 --> 00:10:22,147 and in her own time. 279 00:10:22,147 --> 00:10:33,815 [Soft music.]