Disobedience (2017)

A woman returns to her Orthodox Jewish community that shunned her for her attraction to a female childhood friend. Once back, their passions reignite as they explore the boundaries of faith and sexuality.

Director:

Sebastián Lelio

Writers:

Sebastián Lelio, Rebecca Lenkiewicz

Stars:

Rachel Weisz, Rachel McAdams, Alessandro Nivola

1 win & 9 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Anton Lesser	...	Rav Krushka
Alessandro Nivola	...	Dovid Kuperman
Allan Corduner	...	Moshe Hartog
Nicholas Woodeson	...	Rabbi Goldfarb
David Fleeshman	...	Yosef Kirschbaum
Steve Furst	...	Dr Gideon Rigler
Rachel Weisz	...	Ronit Krushka
Trevor Allan Davies	...	Tattooed Man
Sophia Brown	...	Photographic Studio Assistant
Anthony Dowding	...	Man in Bar
Bernice Stegers	...	Fruma Hartog
Clara Francis	...	Hinda
Rachel McAdams	...	Esti Kuperman
Lia Cohen	...	Rina
Cara Horgan	...	Miss Scheinberg

Storyline

From a screenplay by Sebastián Lelio and Rebecca Lenkiewicz, the film follows a woman as she returns to her Orthodox Jewish community that shunned her decades earlier for an attraction to a female childhood friend. Once back, their passions reignite as they explore the boundaries of faith and sexuality. Based on Naomi Alderman's book, the film stars Rachel Weisz, Rachel McAdams and Alessandro Nivola.

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Plot Keywords:

lesbian relationship | spitting in someone's mouth | scandal | infidelity | female nudity | 

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Taglines:

Love is an act of defiance.

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some strong sexuality

Details

Official Sites:

Official Site

Country:

UK Ireland USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 April 2018 (USA)

Also Known As:

Disobedience

Filming Locations:

Golders Green, London, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$6,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$237,393, 29 April 2018, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$3,480,702

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$5,917,917, 15 July 2018

Company Credits

Production Co:

Braven Films,Element Pictures,Film 4

Technical Specs

Runtime:

114 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Filming began on January 3, 2017.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Rav Krushka: In the beginning, Hashem made three types of creatures, the angels, the beasts, and the human beings. The angels, He made from His pure word. The angels have no will to do evil. They cannot deviate for one moment from His purpose. The beasts have only their instincts to guide them. They, too, follow the commands of their maker. The Torah states that Hashem spent almost six whole days of creation fashioning these creatures. Then, just before sunset, He took a small quantity of earth...

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Connections

Referenced in Late Night with Seth Meyers: Kate Beckinsale/Colin Hanks/Allison Miller (2016)

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Soundtracks

Keil Molei Rakhamim
Written by Solomon Ancis
Edited by Eliot Alderman (as E. Alderman) and Adrian Alexander (as A. Alexander)
Performed by Eliot Alderman, Adrian Alexander, Edward Hughes, Matthew Pochin, Joseph Thompson, Yoav Oved, Benjamin Seifert, Gabriel Gottlieb, Harry Style, Aaron Isaac
Licensed by Transcontinental Music Publications from the works of Memorial Services for Male Voices; El Mole Rachamim

User Reviews

Rewrite and a new Editor

I really wanted to love this movie. Some parts I enjoyed but was repeatedly taken out of the narrative by filmmaker choices.

The editing left much to be desired-scenes are awkwardly edited where you can see it's a different take of the same scene. Many of the edits simply appeared ham-handed and amateur.

Continuity also seems an issue; the progress of the story is chunked out, like skipping around chapters in a book. The screenplay lacks the dialog which would convey the depth of the story and it's characters.

The actors are quite good but not able to fill all the missing bits of good filmmaking. The score was musically fine but seems to have been written for a different movie. The pacing too, is slow and awkward like much of this film.

The Rachels handled what little they had to work with well. The sex scene was interesting and respectfully shot but again, the editing sucked all the life out of this love story.

Though I think this film was a missed opportunity, the potential for a well-written and directed sequel could fix what didn't work in this outing.

I really wanted to like it but kinda didn't.