The horrors of religious fanaticism

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column

Michael Commane

It’s always a plus when a film comes recommended. In German class last week the teacher recommended the film Unorthodox. 

It’s a Netflix mini-series made up of four episodes. Not too long, easy to watch over weekend evenings. It was released in March this year. It is an amazing film. The dialogue switches from English, to German to Yiddish.

It’s based, more or less, on Deborah Feldman’s autobiography, ‘The Scandalous Rejection of my Hasidic Roots’.

Esty Shapiro is a 19-year-old woman, who has always felt different in the community in which she is living. Esty is an Hasidic Jew living in the Hasidic Jewish community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, which is ultra conservative. They are Satmar Jews, who originated in Hungary. They re-established themselves after World War II in New York. The group is extremely strict in its observance and is anti-zionist. They speak Yiddish.

Esty’s marriage to Yanky is arranged. From day one she is not happy in the relationship and the wider family are putting pressure on her to become pregnant. Sex with Yanky is a terrible ordeal for her but eventually she becomes pregnant.

Because of her ancestral roots she manages to acquire a German passport and flees to Berlin, where her estranged mother is living. Esty is upset when she discovers her mother is living with her female partner.

On her first day in the German capital she accidentally meets a young man and helps him carry a tray of coffees to his friends. These are a group of young talented musicians, who come from all over the world. 

Esty is thrown into a completely different world. She is small, looks different and certainly anything but sophisticated. Someone commented that Esty ‘is a funny little creature’. And that she is, but aren’t we all.

The film chronicles Esty’s journey to freedom, which is greatly supported by her new found music friends.

Her husband Yanky and a member of the family come to Berlin and try to persuade Esty to return to New York with them. She is having none of it and decides to find a new life for herself in Berlin.

It’s a heart-wrenching film. Esty is small in stature, no formal useful education, but she is made of steel. She has decided to find her own way in life.

There are many aspects to the mini-series. It tells many tales. But watching it I kept reminding myself the damage that any fanatical take on religion can cause people.

Her husband Yanky is not a bad man but he has been enslaved by a religious system that prevents him from being himself.

He is overawed when he hears Esty sing at an audition and promises her he will change his ways. To prove his change of heart he cuts off his payots, sidelocks or sideburns worn by some men in Orthodox Jewish communities.

But Esty assures him it is too late and that she is staying in Berlin.

I can’t help but think that the religious fanaticism from which Esty fled exists in most religions. I see it in my church, and right now it is causing me great concern.