Unorthodox begins with a departure. Directed by Maria Schrader, this 2020 German drama series tracks a young woman from a Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn to the streets of Berlin, and asks what a person carries with her when she leaves everything else behind.
What is Unorthodox about?
She has grown up inside a tightly knit Hasidic world in Brooklyn, and the marriage she is living in was arranged for her. One day she walks away from it and boards a flight to Berlin. There, with almost nothing to her name, she falls in with a group of musicians who make room for her among them. The city offers her things she has never been allowed to try, and the series watches her test each one with a mix of nerve and hesitation. Brooklyn has not let go, though. People from the life she left set out after her, and the distance she has put between herself and her past starts to close.
About the cast
The ensemble credited in the catalogue includes Ronit Asheri, Eli Rosen, Safinaz Sattar, Aziz Dyab and Felix Mayr, alongside further cast members from the production's Israeli contingent. The mix of names reflects the two worlds the story moves between: the community in Brooklyn on one side, and the young, international circle of musicians in Berlin on the other.
Context & significance
Unorthodox is a German production, and Maria Schrader directs. Episodes run about 54 minutes each, which gives the drama room to stay with its central character through long, quiet passages as well as moments of open conflict. The Hasidic setting is presented as the concrete world its heroine comes from, with its own customs, expectations and family ties, and the series is as interested in what she misses as in what she escapes. Berlin works as the counterweight: a secular, crowded, musical city where nobody knows her and nothing is decided in advance. At heart this is a coming-of-age story told slightly late, about a woman learning for the first time what her own choices look like.
Watching Unorthodox on Ktime
K-Time offers Unorthodox with a Persian dub and with Persian subtitles. Anyone can read this page, but playback needs a K-Time account login. The catalogue and player are presented in Farsi, designed for Persian-speaking viewers living outside Iran, so finding the next episode is as simple as following the season list.