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What Unorthodox Teaches Us About Trauma | Netflix

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    The dictionary definition of trauma is:
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    Severe emotional shock and pain,
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    caused by an extremely
    upsetting experience.
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    There is no set way to process trauma.
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    But, in "Unorthodox," we see how
    two different communities,
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    one in Berlin, and another in
    Brooklyn,
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    cope with the tragedies
    that have shaped them.
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    And, in turn, we learn ways
    to deal with our trauma.
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    In Brooklyn, trauma forms
    19 year old Esty's,
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    and her community's,
    identity.
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    The action follows
    the secretive Satmar community
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    of Hasidic Jews.
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    Established by a rabbi
    who had fled Satu Mare,
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    in present-day Romania,
    during the Holocaust.
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    The Satmar community
    does not mix with others.
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    In "Unorthodox,"
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    at the head of the
    sex-segregated table,
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    for Pesach dinner,
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    an annual commemoration
    of the Jews who escaped slavery
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    in ancient Egypt,
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    Esty's grandfather
    gives his reasons why.
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    [Grandfather] We tell ourselves
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    the story of Passover
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    to remind us of
    our suffering.
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    [Narrator] The show celebrates
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    the strong bonds
    of family and tradition,
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    within Esty's community,
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    where religious customs
    and prayers
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    can take place safely,
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    while deadly attacks
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    on synagogues, and
    other venues frequented by Jews,
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    rise, across the world.
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    This community defies
    anti-Semitism, by living devoutly.
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    We also see, in this scene,
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    how Satmar Jews
    draw on past trauma,
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    to make members scared
    of the big, bad outside.
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    [Grandfather] When we trusted
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    our friends and neighbors,
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    God punished us.
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    When we forget who we are,
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    we invite God's wrath.
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    [Narrator] The Holocaust
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    caused PTSD in its survivors.
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    Its impact lives on.
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    As Auschwitz survivor,
    chemist, and writer,
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    Primo Levi puts it:
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    "Auschwitz is outside of us,
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    but it is all around us,
    in the air.
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    The plague has died away,
    but the infection still lingers,
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    and it would be foolish
    to deny it."
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    This generational trauma
    grows from the roots
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    of Esty's family tree,
    and shapes Esty's personal identity.
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    She is discouraged from
    exploring passions
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    that contradict
    the community's values.
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    Her piano lessons
    are so frowned upon,
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    she must take them
    in secret.
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    Her teacher,
    Vivian Dropkin,
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    is derided as 'a shiksa,'
    or non-Jew.
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    But interestingly,
    though the show never mentions it,
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    Dropkin is a secular Jew.
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    Despite her faith, her choices
    are not Jewish enough
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    for Esty's devout community.
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    Many Orthodox Jews
    believe that the way
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    to undo the trauma
    of the Holocaust,
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    is to repopulate.
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    2013 research for
    the Pew Center
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    shows that Orthodox Jews
    have a birth rate of 4.1,
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    as opposed to the U. S.
    national average of 1.8.
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    Esty totally believes
    what she's been taught to believe,
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    later insisting,
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    "We are rebuilding
    the six million lost."
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    Jews killed in the Holocaust.
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    [Grandmother] So many lost.
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    But, soon, you'll have
    children of your own.
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    [Narrator] Six million
    is no small sum.
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    So, alongside the housework
    needed to keep her home tidy,
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    and her husband, Yanky Shapiro,
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    well fed and in perfectly
    ironed suits,
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    Esty's job is to have
    as many children as possible.
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    [Woman] You will have no leverage
    in this marriage,
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    until there is a baby.
    Understand me?
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    [Narrator] She is told that sex
    will give her husband pleasure,
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    which, in turn, will give her
    exactly what she wants:
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    what she has been told she wants...
    a baby.
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    The problem with this way
    of dealing with trauma,
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    as we see it through Esty's eyes,
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    is, it creates
    a domino effect.
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    There is a field of academic study
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    called epigenetics,
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    which deals with the concept
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    of trans-generational trauma,
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    or, the idea that trauma
    can be inherited.
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    Some study suggests that DNA
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    changes in response
    to horrifying experiences,
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    and that, then, passes
    down generations.
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    Whether through epigenetics
    or not,
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    in "Unorthodox," traumatized parents
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    unintentionally traumatize
    their children.
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    Esty's grandparents are still,
    understandably,
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    bereft by the Holocaust.
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    Their son, Mordecai,
    is mentally unwell.
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    As for Leah, her trauma
    comes, mainly,
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    from not quite fitting the mold
    that's been set for her.
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    Esty is tarred by her parents' pain.
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    Now that she is a bride herself,
    she finds the rules troublesome.
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    [Mrs. Shapiro] We shouldn't have agreed
    to this marriage.
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    [Yanky Shapiro] Mommy, please!
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    [Mrs. Shapiro] The apple doesn't fall
    far from the tree.
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    [Narrator] When Esty tries
    to argue the case
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    for her to be pleasured,
    rather than traumatized in bed,
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    using scripture as evidence
    of God's will for it,
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    she is shut down.
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    [Yanky Shapiro] Women are not
    allowed to read the Talmud!
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    [Narrator] This text is for men only,
    not for women's eyes,
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    due to something known as
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    "Kavod Hatzibur," or the dignity
    of the community.
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    Esty's story shows how
    socially restrictive responses to trauma
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    often unfairly muzzle women.
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    Esty can't get away with half
    of what her cousin, Moishe, can.
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    Moishe is a thief, a liar,
    an aggressive lout,
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    with no consideration
    for others.
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    Yet, his behavior seems rooted
    In self-loathing.
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    His moral decay,
    his own trauma,
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    is catching up with him,
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    as he realizes, he has neither
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    the commitment of one community,
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    nor the tools of another.
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    [Moishe cackles laughing.]
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    [Narrator] Meanwhile, Yanky,
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    a saint next to Moishe,
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    ends up meting out trauma,
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    through his childishly ignorant
    commitment
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    to maintaining his community,
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    by any means available.
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    In Brooklyn, we see how trauma,
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    sadly, sometimes begets
    more trauma.
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    As Esty's mom puts it:
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    [Leah] So much damage
    done in Brooklyn,
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    in the name of God.
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    All the rules, all the gossip.
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    No wonder Esty can't stand it.
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    [Narrator] Berlin, meanwhile,
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    has a very different way
    of dealing with trauma.
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    [Classical music.]
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    "Unorthodox" presents
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    Adolf Hitler's former stronghold
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    as a liberal, diverse idyll,
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    where people, especially the young,
    can do
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    what they want, when they want,
    with whom they want.
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    Once the epicenter of suffering,
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    Berlin counters its past trauma
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    by celebrating joy,
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    and reclaiming some of its character
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    that the Nazis tried to extinguish.
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    This is the city
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    that once saw the Golden 1920s
    of the Weimar Republic,
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    when Marlene Dietrich
    rose to fame,
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    cabaret was popular entertainment,
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    and the Bauhaus art movement
    was founded.
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    This social liberalism
    comes across in public displays
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    of affection, that the naive
    and modest Esty is struck by.
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    She is used to a traumatic sex life,
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    that only ever happened in private,
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    yet was discussed so publicly.
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    In Berlin, the opposite is true.
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    This is because pleasure,
    rather than procreation,
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    is the goal.
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    Esty begins to realize
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    that the world is not
    as black and white
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    as she has been taught.
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    [Man] You could try to rescue
    Robert's attempt at a salad.
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    [Narrator] The city's physical spaces
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    are examples of how traumatic sites
    can be reclaimed.
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    On Esty's first excursion
    with her new friends,
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    she ventures upon what is,
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    to her community back in Brooklyn,
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    hell.
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    [Man] When the Berlin Wall was up,
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    East German guards shot anyone
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    who tried to swim across this lake
    to freedom.
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    [Esty] And now?
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    [Man] Now, you can swim
    as far as you like.
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    [Narrator] It might be
    the location of trauma,
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    but it's not the source
    of trauma.
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    Unlike the Mikvah that
    blessed Esty,
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    a secular body of water
    cannot bless, or condemn.
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    Only people can.
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    Of course, some people
    will never be able to find joy
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    in the same waters Hitler
    gazed across,
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    as he decided to end
    millions of Jews' lives.
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    But in this scene,
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    Esty has
    an opportunity to help
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    begin her new life,
    within its waters.
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    Esty removes her wig
    in this lake,
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    in a more extreme version
    of the breakup haircut.
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    While the shorn hair
    beneath it
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    is the imposition of a sect
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    that sees women's hair
    as so tempting to men
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    it must be shaved off,
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    it is also an uncanny
    and unintended reminder
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    of the ways in which
    Esty's ancestors
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    were dehumanized
    by the Nazis,
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    their heads shaved
    in the concentration camps.
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    [Esty panting.]
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    [Narrator] Without this wig,
    she can float in the water,
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    free to forget her trauma,
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    and all the rules and regulations
    that led to it.
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    The lake scene proves how
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    expression of individual freedoms
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    can pay tribute to past generations
    who were once restricted.
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    By swimming in the waters,
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    Esty and her friends
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    do what many from
    previous generations could not.
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    Joy is, for them, a far more useful
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    tool of remembrance,
    than guilt.
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    [Man] A lake is just a lake.
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    [Narrator] Esty's new friends
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    prove that trauma comes
    in many forms.
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    Each carries with them
    their own difficult histories.
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    Some come from war-torn countries,
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    have lost loved ones,
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    or grew up gay
    in homophobic countries.
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    The friction between
    Esty and Yael hinges
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    on how their shared trauma
    is dealt with so differently.
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    [Esty] My grandparents
    lost their whole families
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    in the camps.
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    [Yael] So did half of Israel.
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    But, we are too busy
    defending our present,
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    to be sentimental
    about our past.
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    [Narrator] Both Jewish,
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    Esty and Yael's ancestors
    may have very well died
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    alongside each other
    in the death camps,
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    but their responses
    to this trauma
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    couldn't be more different.
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    Yael used music
    as an escape from military duty,
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    and its inevitable traumas.
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    With her violin in hand,
    she expresses herself as she chooses.
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    Esty quickly learns that,
    in Berlin,
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    men and women,
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    secular Jews,
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    Muslims, Christians,
    and others
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    play music together.
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    The only rules
    are that they turn up,
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    stay focused, and
    collaborate.
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    Esty no longer
    muffles her own screams,
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    but unleashes her pain
    and trauma,
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    using the creativity
    she has always longed
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    to be able to wield.
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    Using Yael's unfiltered freedom
    as a template,
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    Esty finally expresses
    her personal identity.
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    [Singing]
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    [Narrator] The Berliners
    of "Unorthodox"
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    haven't forgotten their trauma,
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    or that of the city
    they live in,
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    but have found ways
    to deal with it,
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    reclaiming Hitler's land
    for their own, joyful purposes.
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    Wanting personal freedoms
    for everyone,
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    especially women.
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    Using creativity as a conduit
    to exorcise their trauma.
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    That is not to say
    Brooklyn is totally opposite.
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    Like everything else in the show,
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    from the costumes to the sets,
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    "Unorthodox" handles trauma
    sensitively and beautifully.
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    No one is outright good,
    or outright evil.
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    Some people struggle in Berlin,
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    in the same way others thrive
    in Brooklyn.
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    Human trauma
    is complex and individual,
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    not black and white.
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    In "Unorthodox," we see
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    the classic tale of a Jew
    escaping European trauma
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    and captivity, in reverse.
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    In Berlin, Esty discovers
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    that undoing trauma
    can be as simple
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    as going for a swim,
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    communicating with outsiders,
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    and singing her heart out.
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    All on her own terms,
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    and in her own time.
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    [Soft music.]
Title:
What Unorthodox Teaches Us About Trauma | Netflix
Description:

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Video Language:
English
Team:
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Duration:
10:37

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