9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And action!

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's huge.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's mind blowing.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I have to keep reminding myself[br]that they're not real.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's like a historical movie, actually,[br]what we are doing here.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This is 90 percent of my filming[br]experience, here?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Is like this.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Come over here to do a show[br]set in Williamsburg,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to do it in Berlin, it kind of, [br]you know, plays with my head.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
A series in Yiddish, for me also,[br]personally, I think it's a great thing.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Going to be dealing with a language[br]that no one understands.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I mean, we're dealing with costumes[br]and rituals no one understands.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But the essence of what's happening,[br]that's universally understood.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This very beautiful and unique story

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that shows kind of like, both worlds.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I don't think it's a story about[br]the existence of God, or something.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's more about...the right to[br]have your voice.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And people like me never really[br]had that opportunity.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We never saw ourselves reflected back[br]in the stories being told

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in popular culture.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So we didn't really know[br]how to create our own stories.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I think this is the first show, ever,[br]to accurately portray

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the Hasidic community.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
These are real people, and their[br]experiences are very universal,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and very relatable.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
When the community watches it,[br]and there is somebody like me,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
watches it, and sees, this girl[br]lived exactly like she lives.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And, she was able to muster[br]the courage to follow her dreams.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Maybe this girl can, too.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
When I met Ann and Alexa,[br]and I became friends with them,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I realized, if anybody is ever going to[br]really be able to grasp

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
what the story is about,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and to really execute it in a way

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that is going to have a [br]positive cultural impact,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it's these women.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
After I met Deborah, [br]i read her book,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and I thought it was amazing.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I mean, I read it in one sitting.[br]I couldn't put it down.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And then, she said:

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
"Well, why don't you make my book[br]into a TV show?"

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Anna and I wanted to make a show[br]for a while,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in which we could work through[br]a lot of the topics

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
we discuss a lot, especially[br]about being Jewish in Germany.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
To me, the story is about[br]a young woman, who

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
is searching for herself,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and she is searching for[br]her community in the world.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Esther is a 19 year old girl.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
She was born and raised in[br]Williamsburg, Brooklyn,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in the community called Satmar.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
- Don't forget, Esty. [br]He speaks first.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
She grows up in a very [br]religious neighborhood.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And, frees herself from an[br]unhappy arranged marriage,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and flees to Berlin.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Her story is unique, and romantic.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We just felt it was so different,[br]that somebody would leave

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
this very insular community[br]in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and find their way here,[br]out of choice.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
From a very young age,[br]she always felt very different.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
She's always been told[br]that she is very different,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
because of the fact that[br]she always has questions within her,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and she has that 'chutzpah,'[br]you can say.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The Satmar Jews are a[br]Hasidic community,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
originally from the town of[br]Sate Mar, in Hungary.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They are mostly descendants[br]of Holocaust survivors, and

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
started by Holocaust survivors,[br]in New York, after the war.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This kind of makes them[br]a little bit different

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
than a lot of other[br]Hasidic communities,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
because they really developed[br]what they were about, after the war.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It is founded by people who are[br]struggling with the most immense trauma.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
For the first generation,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I would say even for the first[br]two generations,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
this trauma was a very driving force

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
behind the ideological structures[br]of this community.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The Satmar community is also special,[br]in that Yiddish is their native language.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I think they can be credited,[br]to some degree,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
with keeping Yiddish alive.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
- But why Berlin?[br]- Think about it.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
- What? [br]- Her crazy mama lives in Berlin!

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It was very important to us,[br]to make changes in the present-day story,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
from Deborah Feldman's real life.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Because she is a young woman,[br]she is a public figure,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
she is a public intellectual,[br]and we wanted Esther's

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Berlin life to be very different[br]from real Deborah's Berlin life.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So, in a sense, the flasbacks[br]are based on the book,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but the present-day story[br]is entirely made up.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
You have to go beyond cliché,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
beyond our projection[br]into what the life might be.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in a community like this.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It was very important to us[br]to get not just the look and feel

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and costumes, and rituals,[br]and everything correct, but

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to inhabit the ideas of[br]these characters' worlds,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in a way that felt authentic,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but also heightened,[br]because it's television.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I just, in general, feel like,[br]when you're showing

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
different communities,[br]especially communities on the margins,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
you want to get the details right.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We knew it was so important[br]to get people on board,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
not just as actors, but behind[br]and in front of the camera,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who are from this community.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So one of the first people we hired[br]was Eli Rosen,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who is an actor, translator,[br]and kind of specialist,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
when it comes to Yiddish.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Eli Rosen was like our guide.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
He was our spirit guide.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
He not only translated the scripts,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
he coached the actors in Yiddish,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
he helped us with all the[br]cultural details,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and he played the rabbi.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
When I was given the opportunity[br]to help ensure

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that it was representative,[br]and that it is authentic,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
um...I, uh...

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
jumped at it.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Directing the scenes[br]which are set within or

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in the ultra-Orthodox world,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I would have been lost,[br]without this advice.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We had two research trips[br]to New York,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
with our entire team,[br]to not just watch and look,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and touch everything we saw,[br]but we got access

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to meeting people who are [br]still in this community.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We really tried to offer[br]our heads of department, as much access.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
These trips, of course,[br]are like a hunt, for impressions,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
for feeling atmosphere,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
for just watching,[br]for just taking things in.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It was a kind of[br]image-based research.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We looked around.[br]We took so many pictures.