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Exclusive: Shttl, an ambitious under-the-radar drama which is the feature helming debut of writer/director Ady Walter, has wrapped in Ukraine. The film is eyeing the 2022 festival circuit and tells the story of the inhabitants of a Yiddish village at the border of Poland, 24 hours before the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany (aka the Barbarossa operation) which would take their lives.

A passion project for all involved, the film was made with an international cast of actors, including Saul Rubinek speaking Yiddish in a village built for the film which will now be transformed into an open-air museum. Eli Rosen, consultant on Netflix series Unorthodox, was on set throughout.

The project was developed and initiated by Forecast Pictures’ Jean-Charles Lévy (The Last Mercenary), who has been working for 15 years with Walter on documentaries and scripts for other directors.

Walter tells...

“High Score” Set to Screen Virtually, November 16-22, 2020 Exclusively on Bitpix “High Score captures the moment of radicalization perfectly!” Eli Rosen Actor & Cultural Consultant – Netflix’s Emmy-Winning Unorthodox “A Stunning Probe into the Origin & Face of Extremist Rage” Broadway World Serena Ryen & Ethan Itzkow of Schmeh Films, the award-winning team behind the …

The post High Score: Anti-Racism, Social Horror Film Makes West Coast Premiere appeared first on Horror News | Hnn.

A version of this story about Shira Haas first appeared in the Emmy Hot List issue of TheWrap’s Emmy magazine.

Shira Haas is one of the discoveries of this year’s Emmy season. The petite 25-year-old Israeli was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for “Unorthodox,” a Netflix limited series loosely based on the Deborah Feldman memoir about a young woman who runs away from her husband and family in the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic community in New York. To play the role, Haas had to learn to speak Yiddish and shave her head, among other challenges. She spoke to Sharon Waxman from her home in Tel Aviv, Israel.

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You’ve played an ultra-Orthodox character before — Ruchami on the Israeli series “Shtisel,” and now Esty in “Unorthodox.” How much did you know about the Hasidic community before taking on these characters?...

At Sarajevo CineLink talk, German producer Henning Kamm spoke about the making of the hit Netflix show.

A producer on hit Netflix drama Unorthodox has revealed the intense hands-on process of the streaming giant, during a Sarajevo CineLink masterclass.

Watch the full session below.

The drama series marked the first Netflix project for Henning Kamm, producer at Berlin-based Real Film, which has become a word-of-mouth sensation and secured eight Emmy nominations.

But it also marked a learning process for Kamm, who outlined just how involved the streaming giant was throughout the production.

“If you work for a broadcaster and you do commissioned work,...

The day Shira Haas auditioned for the role of Esty Shapiro on Unorthodox, she got drenched in the rain. When she arrived at the venue, she cleaned herself up, took a few deep breaths, walked into the audition and sang Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah. A year and-a-half after the Israeli actress nailed the audition, she’s received praise and acclaim for her arresting performance as a young woman who leaves the Hasidic Satmar community in Brooklyn to make her own way in Berlin. Speaking by phone from Tel Aviv, Haas discusses the experience of shooting the Netflix hit series and what she learned in the process.

Deadline: What has stood out to you about the way Unorthodox has been received?

Shira Haas: I was not expecting it; the amount of love and support it’s received is enormous and it’s amazing. I always believed in the show, and for me,...

Amit Rahav will never forget seeing himself for the first time in full wardrobe and hair and makeup as Yanky, the Hasidic Jew he plays in the Netflix miniseries “Unorthodox.”

“It was wild because I’m very secular and it is quite the opposite of my daily life and style,” Rahav says on this week’s episode of the Variety and iHeart podcast “The Big Ticket.” “Once I put on the clothes and the payot [the sidelocks that Hasidic men grow], I suddenly felt right. In some way, I got to know the character much better.”

Based on Deborah Feldman’s 2012 memoir of the same name, “Unorthodox” stars Shira Haas as Esty, Yanky’s new young wife, who flees her religious community in Brooklyn for a secular life in Berlin. “I read it very quickly because it’s so good,” says Rahav, 24. “It was very important for me to know [Feldman’s] point of view and where she comes from.

Onscreen, “Unorthodox” star Shira Haas breaks free of her restrictive upbringing to start a new life as an artist. Offscreen, she’s simply a breakout — as one the year’s most exciting rising stars.

The 24-year-old actress, who lives in Tel Aviv, portrays Esther “Esty” Shapiro on the Netflix limited series. She’s playing a story based on real life: As directed by Maria Schrader, with a largely female creative team and crew, “Unorthodox” is adapted from Deborah Feldman’s 2012 best-selling memoir “Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots.”

But within a version of Feldman’s story, Haas finds something entirely new. Her work brings to mind the naivety of Carey Mulligan in “An Education” and the harder edges of Jennifer Garner from “Alias.”

On a recent afternoon, Haas spoke on a Zoom call with Jessica Chastain, her co-star in the 2017 war drama “The Zookeeper’s Wife,” about the role,...

Imagine delivering a career-defining performance in a language you don’t even speak. That was the challenge presented to Shira Haas, the Israeli actress whose galvanizing turn propels “Unorthodox,” a four-part Netflix limited series about a young woman who leaves her Hasidic community behind.

As the courageous lead character Esty, who abandons everything she knows in her search for self-actualization, Haas cycles through many different phases of her character’s journey, from childhood to marriage to her new life in Berlin. She embodies these transformations in Yiddish and English — neither one is her native Hebrew tongue — with poise, nuance, and specificity, delivering a tour de force that makes “Unorthodox” entirely gripping from start to finish.

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Based on the eponymous memoir by Deborah Feldman,...

Exclusive: Production is underway in Berlin on Netflix Original mini-series Unorthodox, which will star Shira Haas (The Zookeeper’s Wife) and be directed by actor-filmmaker Maria Schrader (Deutschland 83).

The Yiddish and English-language four-part mini-series, executive produced by Deutschland 83/86 creator Anna Winger, will see Haas star as a young woman who leaves an arranged marriage in New York and sets out on her own to Berlin. The story is inspired by Deborah Feldman’s bestselling memoir of a young Jewish woman’s escape from a religious sect. Also starring are Jeff Wilbusch (Little Drummer Girl) and Amit Rahav (Dig).

Feldman’s novel has been adapted for screen by Winger and Alexa Karolinski (Oma & Bella). Eli Rosen of the New Yiddish Repertory Theater in New York is translating. The series is produced by Anna Winger’s Studio Airlift, Henning Kamm at Real Film Berlin. It marks the first project out of...