WEBVTT

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[Soft music.]

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And action!

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It's huge.

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It's mind blowing.

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I have to keep reminding myself
that they're not real.

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It's like a historical movie, actually,
what we are doing here.

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This is 90 percent of my filming
experience, here?

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Is like this.

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Come over here to do a show
set in Williamsburg,

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to do it in Berlin, it kind of, 
you know, plays with my head.

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A series in Yiddish, for me also,
personally, I think it's a great thing.

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Going to be dealing with a language
that no one understands.

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I mean, we're dealing with costumes
and rituals no one understands.

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But the essence of what's happening,
that's universally understood.

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This very beautiful and unique story

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that shows kind of like, both worlds.

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I don't think it's a story about
the existence of God, or something.

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It's more about...the right to
have your voice.

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And people like me never really
had that opportunity.

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We never saw ourselves reflected back
in the stories being told

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in popular culture.

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So we didn't really know
how to create our own stories.

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I think this is the first show, ever,
to accurately portray

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the Hasidic community.

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These are real people, and their
experiences are very universal,

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and very relatable.

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When the community watching it,
and there is somebody like me,

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watches it, and sees, this girl
lived exactly like she lives.

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And, she was able to muster
the courage to follow her dreams.

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Maybe this girl can, too.

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When I met Ann and Alexa,
and I became friends with them,

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I realized, if anybody is ever going to
really be able to grasp

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what the story is about,

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and to really execute it in a way

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that is going to have a 
positive cultural impact,

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it's these women.

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After I met Deborah, 
I read her book,

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and I thought it was amazing.

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I mean, I read it in one sitting.
I couldn't put it down.

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And then, she said:

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"Well, why don't you make my book
into a TV show?"

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Anna and I wanted to make a show
for a while,

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in which we could work through
a lot of the topics

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we discuss a lot, especially
about being Jewish in Germany.

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To me, the story is about
a young woman, who

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is searching for herself,

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and she is searching for
her community in the world.

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Esther is a 19 year old girl.

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She was born and raised in
Williamsburg, Brooklyn,

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in the community called Satmar.

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- Don't forget, Esty. 
He speaks first.

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She grows up in a very 
religious neighborhood.

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And, frees herself from an
unhappy arranged marriage,

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and flees to Berlin.

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Her story is unique, and romantic.

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We just felt it was so different,
that somebody would leave

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this very insular community
in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York,

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and find their way here,
out of choice.

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From a very young age,
she always felt very different.

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She's always been told
that she is very different,

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because of the fact that
she always has questions within her,

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and she has that 'chutzpah,'
you can say.

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The Satmar Jews are a
Hasidic community,

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originally from the town of
Satu Mare, in Hungary.

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They are mostly descendants
of Holocaust survivors, and

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started by Holocaust survivors,
in New York, after the war.

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This kind of makes them
a little bit different

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than a lot of other
Hasidic communities,

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because they really developed
what they were about, after the war,

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and not before.

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It is founded by people who are
struggling

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with the most immense trauma
we can imagine.

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For the first generation,

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I would say even for the first
two generations,

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this trauma was a very driving force

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behind the ideological structures
of this community.

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The Satmar community is also special,
in that Yiddish is their native language.

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I think they can be credited,
to some degree,

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with keeping Yiddish alive.

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- But why Berlin?
- Think about it.

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- What? 
- Her crazy mama lives in Berlin!

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It was very important to us,
to make changes in the present-day story,

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from Deborah Feldman's real life.

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Because she is a young woman,
she is a public figure,

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she is a public intellectual,
and we wanted Esther's

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Berlin life to be very different
from real Deborah's Berlin life.

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So, in a sense, the flashbacks
are based on the book,

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but the present-day story
is entirely made up.

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You have to go beyond cliché,

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beyond our projection
onto what the life might be

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in a community like this.

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It was very important to us
to get not just the look and feel

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and costumes, and rituals,
and everything correct, but

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to inhabit the ideas of
these characters' worlds,

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in a way that felt authentic,

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but also heightened,
because it's television.

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I just, in general, feel like,
when you're showing

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different communities,
especially communities on the margins,

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you want to get the details right.

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We knew it was so important
to get people on board,

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not just as actors, but behind
and in front of the camera,

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who are from this community.

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So one of the first people we hired
was Eli Rosen,

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who is an actor, translator,
and kind of specialist,

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when it comes to Yiddish.

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Eli Rosen was like our guide.

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He was our spirit guide.

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He not only translated the scripts,

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he coached the actors in Yiddish,

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he helped us with all the
cultural details,

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and he played the rabbi.

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When I was given the opportunity
to help ensure

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that it was representative,
and that it is authentic,

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um...I, uh...

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jumped at it.

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Directing the scenes
which are set within or

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in the ultra-Orthodox world,

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I would have been lost,
without this advice.

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We had two research trips
to New York,

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with our entire team,
to not just watch and look,

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and touch everything we saw,
but we got access

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to meeting people who are 
still in this community.

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We really tried to offer
our heads of department, as much access.

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These trips, of course,
are like a hunt, for impressions,

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for feeling atmosphere,

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for just watching,
for just taking things in.

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It was a kind of
image-based research.

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We looked around.
We took so many pictures.

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And we tried to inhale this world

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by the visual impressions we got.

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While we were taken around New York,

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we went on a tour of Williamsburg,
by an ex-Satmar woman,

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who had grown up there,
she had her first child there,

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and had been married, and everything.

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She walked us through
a lot of Williamsburg,

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and a lot of traditions within
the exterior buildings.

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Silke was taking lots of notes
for her world,

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and I was taking lots of notes

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for the characters
that I was going to be building.

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We started shooting the past,
like the Williamsburg parts,

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and then, we moved to Berlin.

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So, suddenly, something felt different.

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Also, it's moving from Yiddish to English,
and different outfits and makeup.

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Suddenly, the hair -- and there was
so many different hairs, right?

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There is bald, and there is this,
and there is the wig, and --

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Esty has so many faces.

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I had spoken to Deborah Feldman,
before we started the project,

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about her personal experience
of transitioning

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from Satmar modesty clothing,
to Western clothing.

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She said it took her a long time,
and it was a slow process,

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and she pushed herself 
to experience

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wearing T shirts, 
and showing her arm,

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and showing more flesh.

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She said it did take a long time.

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So, I wanted to show that.

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I wanted to reflect Deborah's experience,
with Esther.

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It was so hard to create, in a way,

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a production that is much like
a period film,

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that plays in the world of today.

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To create the costumes for that
was a very big challenge.

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Much like the sets that played
in two worlds,

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we had costumes that played
in two worlds.

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Plus, a character who has an arc,

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not just in her character,
but in her looks, and her clothes.

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Our production designer
knew which exterior locations

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we were going to be using there,

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and built, made to measure, here,

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to sync with those exteriors.

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We have complicated locations,
because we shot

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most of the New York part,
here in Berlin.

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- Why Germany?

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The other movies that we did before,

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we can [film] through the windows,

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and now, we do everything inside.

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So, maybe, this is a very first 
experience, for me. Yeah.

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Wolfgang is an incredible
cinematographer.

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He has shot some of the most
incredible documentaries.

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He is able to work with natural light.

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He is able to work spontaneously.

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We joke that he is like
the hand held steadicam.

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He is good at combining
different kinds of light,

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which, because we were matching
set interiors with real exteriors,

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the lighting was very delicate,

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and Wolfgang was 
incredible at that.

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When I watch material
in post production,

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I think it is very difficult

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to see what was inside,
and what was outside,

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what was in New York,
and what was shot in Berlin.

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- She's not here?

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Shira Haas is a talent.
What a face.

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I mean, she only needs
to move a part of her face,

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and can make you cry,
or laugh.

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Shira is just an
enormous, enormous actress.

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So talented. So gifted.
Such a hard worker.

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It was pure joy.

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Every day, it was pure joy,
to work with Shira.

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I think that what is really 
beautiful in Esty,

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I think that she 
really really really,

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even though she has been told
all her life that she is different,

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even though she feels like
she is different,

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she always tries very, very hard
to fit in. Really.

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And, she really wants to find
that feeling of belonging and happiness.

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We have, sort of, four main characters.

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I mean, Esther is the main character,

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but the other main characters
are all Satmar characters,

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who are dealing with being
inside and outside at the same time.

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The thing is, she was kicked out,
or left the community 15 years before.

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It is that role, that attracted me,
really, to the whole thing.

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With Amit Rahav, we had never
seen him act in another project.

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We just saw him in the audition.

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We were all just blown away
by him, as well.

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He just kills it, in every scene.
He is a natural talent.

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I think that he is just
very naive, and innocent.

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It's not weakness.

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He has one truth, and this is
the one truth he knows.

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- It's around here somewhere.

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- There it is!

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- In this section. 
Next to the fallen tree!

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With Jeff Wilbusch,
a crazy thing happened.

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Our German casting director,
said:

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"Oh, we have this German actor,
who speaks Yiddish."

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It was the end of the day,
and Alexa and I were really tired,

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and we were sitting here in the office.

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So, this guy comes in, 
and we were like:

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"Yeah, so this is what the show
is about," and everything.

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He was like: 
"This is my story."

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And we were like:
"I'm sorry?"

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And he was like:

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"I am from the 
Satmar community.

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Yiddish is my native language.
This is my story."

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I think Moishe is
a tragic role.

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He has a lot of issues.

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Personal issues,
that he needs to fight.

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He is haunted.

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And he is also a hunter.

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So, he comes to
bring Esther back.

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- Say it. Where is Esty?

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- Where is Esty, telephone?

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- You're crazy, Yanky.

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For us, the challenges
of creating this Satmar wedding,

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here in Berlin, began with
finding enough extras,

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who had big enough beards,

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and were willing to get
all the hair and makeup.

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The joke on this show
is that the men required

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more hair and makeup
than the women.

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- Mine is grown now.
I wasn't allowed to cut it.

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It's a very complex 
cultural ritual.

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We wanted to get it right.
There are a lot of details.

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I'm just placing everybody in
sort of gender and age order,

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as well as imaginary relationship
to the bride and groom.

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So, there is kind of
a system to it.

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It's incredible pageantry.

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It's a moment of great joy
for the family.

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But, they don't necessarily
express their joy,

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the way other communities
express it.

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I paid for everything.

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So really, everything
has to work out.

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I check everyone's behavior.

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I am having fun,
but not too much.

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It was very important for us,

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to strike the right tone 
with the wedding.

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Then, also, we had
a hundred extras.

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Costumes.

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Well, the first challenge,
and the biggest challenge,

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was to shoot it all
within two days. [Laughs]

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For us, it was our
big Hollywood moment.

00:14:33.863 --> 00:14:36.334
It was very hot
when we were shooting.

00:14:36.334 --> 00:14:37.347
Unfortunately,

00:14:37.347 --> 00:14:39.280
for all of the extras,
and actors,

00:14:39.280 --> 00:14:41.065
they were wearing 
a lot of costume,

00:14:41.065 --> 00:14:42.547
and makeup, and hair,

00:14:42.547 --> 00:14:44.480
in 100 degree Farhenheit
weather.

00:14:44.480 --> 00:14:46.830
Every day on set,
it's like this. Normal.

00:14:46.830 --> 00:14:51.680
- That's what I'm used to.
- He's the king.

00:14:51.680 --> 00:14:54.996
It's hot in there.

00:14:54.996 --> 00:14:58.635
It's too hot. Please,
don't send me in there, again.

00:14:58.635 --> 00:15:02.664
We had an incredibly talented
costume designer, Justine Seymour.

00:15:02.664 --> 00:15:04.866
She has worked all over the world.

00:15:04.866 --> 00:15:06.929
She is incredibly flexible.

00:15:06.929 --> 00:15:10.165
It was challenging, because
some of the actual clothing

00:15:10.165 --> 00:15:14.399
is not for sale here, so some things 
were sourced in Williamsburg.

00:15:14.399 --> 00:15:17.616
They wear these furry hats
called shtreimels.

00:15:17.616 --> 00:15:21.733
We couldn't afford them.
They cost more than 1000 Euro each.

00:15:21.733 --> 00:15:24.832
Each hat involves the fur
of six minks,

00:15:24.832 --> 00:15:27.997
which seemed unnecessary to us.
We needed a lot of them.

00:15:27.997 --> 00:15:31.950
So, a theater company in Hamburg
made them out of fake fur.

00:15:31.950 --> 00:15:35.868
So, no minks were harmed
in the making of this TV show.

00:15:35.868 --> 00:15:38.747
Right now, I am spraying
and stroking the shtreimel,

00:15:38.747 --> 00:15:44.199
in order to make the fur flat,
and look more realistic and shiny.

00:15:44.199 --> 00:15:46.865
We have had to fit them,
to make them work,

00:15:46.865 --> 00:15:49.863
for every individual actor, yes.
Even all of the extras.

00:15:49.863 --> 00:15:53.182
There is a tent, over there,
full of shtreimels.

00:15:53.182 --> 00:15:55.379
We call it our shtreimel tent.

00:15:55.379 --> 00:15:58.380
Our head of hair and makeup
department, Jens,

00:15:58.380 --> 00:16:04.234
managed to create our peyots,
in a way that I've never seen on screen.

00:16:04.234 --> 00:16:08.314
One hundred percent
the best peyots I've seen.

00:16:08.314 --> 00:16:09.748
It's quite interesting.

00:16:09.748 --> 00:16:11.797
Yesterday, we were laughing
very much.

00:16:11.797 --> 00:16:15.182
When we had 150 Hasids outside,
it was a very funny picture.

00:16:15.182 --> 00:16:18.200
Someone was saying: "Look!
The Jews are back in Berlin."

00:16:18.200 --> 00:16:35.196
[Music.]

00:16:35.196 --> 00:16:38.534
We always talk about trying
to portray reality in film.

00:16:38.534 --> 00:16:44.600
There is no more reality
than diversity.

00:16:44.600 --> 00:16:50.080
That's -- just walk 
across the street.

00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:52.064
So, for Berlin,
we really wanted

00:16:52.064 --> 00:16:55.348
to create a very colorful
lightness,

00:16:55.348 --> 00:16:57.602
to the architecture we chose.

00:16:57.602 --> 00:17:00.799
We kind of returned to 
West Berlin.

00:17:00.799 --> 00:17:05.149
Kind of little locations and areas,
and certain type of architecture,

00:17:05.149 --> 00:17:09.066
that, um, were built in the
1970s and 1980s.

00:17:09.066 --> 00:17:13.416
I wanted to have something
more with a freer space.

00:17:13.416 --> 00:17:15.149
More rhythm in it.

00:17:15.149 --> 00:17:21.449
Silke found a most incredible location,
right next to the Philharmonic.

00:17:21.449 --> 00:17:24.982
No one had ever shot there, and
it was the perfect location.

00:17:24.982 --> 00:17:28.599
It was for the music academy,
it was built in the 1960s.

00:17:28.599 --> 00:17:35.284
It was supposed to be
a much lighter, open architecture,

00:17:35.284 --> 00:17:39.299
post-war. It was about 
communication.

00:17:39.299 --> 00:17:41.769
It was about low hierarchy.

00:17:41.769 --> 00:17:45.350
Um, mirrored by architecture.

00:17:45.350 --> 00:17:49.281
We created our own
music academy, where

00:17:49.281 --> 00:17:51.916
Jews and Muslims
are playing music together.

00:17:51.916 --> 00:17:55.931
It's also this crazy,
post-colonial paradox.

00:17:55.931 --> 00:17:58.215
Like, why are people
from the Middle East

00:17:58.215 --> 00:18:00.233
playing German music,
at all?

00:18:00.233 --> 00:18:05.033
It has this crazy bringing together
of unexpected worlds.

00:18:05.033 --> 00:18:10.036
That gets to the spirit
of the show, on every level.

00:18:10.036 --> 00:18:14.233
The concept of this music academy
is that different talented musicians

00:18:14.233 --> 00:18:18.430
from all over the world come together,
to practice their specific instruments.

00:18:18.430 --> 00:18:31.200
[Instrumental music.]

00:18:31.200 --> 00:18:32.917
Television is aspirational.

00:18:32.917 --> 00:18:35.867
We like the idea of showing
a version of Berlin

00:18:35.867 --> 00:18:37.384
that was full of music,

00:18:37.384 --> 00:18:41.834
that merged music from the past,
with young people from the future,

00:18:41.834 --> 00:18:45.031
against this amazing backdrop.

00:18:45.031 --> 00:18:50.016
There is a kind of 
doubling back on history

00:18:50.016 --> 00:18:51.298
in this show.

00:18:51.298 --> 00:18:53.051
We have a Jewish character.

00:18:53.051 --> 00:18:56.749
In order to escape 
the confines of her own life,

00:18:56.749 --> 00:19:02.319
she returns to the source of
her community's trauma.

00:19:02.319 --> 00:19:04.683
- Do you see that villa?

00:19:04.683 --> 00:19:07.801
- The conference, where the Nazis
decided to kill the Jews,

00:19:07.801 --> 00:19:11.320
- in concentration camps,
took place in 1942 in that villa.

00:19:11.320 --> 00:19:13.335
- And you swim in this lake?

00:19:13.335 --> 00:19:16.316
- A lake is just a lake.

00:19:16.316 --> 00:19:19.698
Of course, seeing her
being confronted

00:19:19.698 --> 00:19:22.052
with our world,

00:19:22.052 --> 00:19:26.051
it makes us question our world,
too.

00:19:26.051 --> 00:19:30.816
Shooting a series in Yiddish,
um, in Berlin,

00:19:30.816 --> 00:19:38.665
which has, ironically, become
a kind of new diaspora,

00:19:38.665 --> 00:19:41.613
in the sense that you have
all these young Israeli Jews,

00:19:41.613 --> 00:19:44.399
all these young American Jews,
coming back to Berlin,

00:19:44.399 --> 00:19:47.369
this is a movement.
This is not the story of one person.

00:19:47.369 --> 00:19:49.231
Um, it just fit.
It made sense,

00:19:49.231 --> 00:19:52.518
that this is the place
where we would rediscover this language,

00:19:52.518 --> 00:19:54.500
outside of a religious context.

00:19:54.500 --> 00:19:57.885
So there will be art in Yiddish.

00:19:57.885 --> 00:20:00.486
There is theater in Yiddish, so.

00:20:00.486 --> 00:20:03.752
But like, a real, Netflix series,
in Yiddish?

00:20:03.752 --> 00:20:06.034
This is something amazing.

00:20:06.034 --> 00:20:14.199
You know, Berlin really
wears its trauma on its sleeve.

00:20:14.199 --> 00:20:17.899
It's what makes the city so raw,
and interesting.

00:20:17.899 --> 00:20:22.951
Esty coming here, um,
she does the same in the city.

00:20:22.951 --> 00:20:25.582
She adds to those layers.

00:20:25.582 --> 00:20:31.416
That was really important for us:
to close that circle,

00:20:31.416 --> 00:20:33.519
as we say in German.

00:20:33.519 --> 00:20:49.485
[Soft instrumental music.]