Unorthodox: behind the Deutschland 83 co-creator’s new Netflix series
Anna Winger talks about the true story at the centre of her new drama which follows a US Hasidic Jewish woman fleeing a loveless marriage for Berlin
It begins like any other daring escape mission: a packed bag, a methodical plan gone slightly awry, split-second brushes with danger, a narrowly avoided exposure. But Esther Shapiro, portrayed by Shira Haas in the lead role of Netflix’s new miniseries Unorthodox, is neither secret agent nor jailbird. She’s a Hasidic Jew in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, and she’s making a break for Berlin. If she’s fleeing a prison, she’s only doing so in the most strictly metaphorical sense. For the past year, Esther has been suffocating in a loveless arranged marriage and, at age 19, she wants a second chance while she’s still got her youth.
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