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

4 wins & 21 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:

female nudity | bare breasts | lesbian relationship | infidelity | lesbian | 

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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

Did You Know?

Trivia

The characters played by Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams are supposed to be about the same age, but in real life Weisz is eight and a half years older than McAdams.

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Goofs

When Ronit and Esti board the subway to inner London and exit out, the Steadicam operator can be seen reflected off the bus as it drives by.

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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

Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Amazing Movies You Missed This Spring (2018)

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Soundtracks

Im Eshkakhekh
Arrangement by Eliot Alderman (as E. Alderman)
Performed by Eliot Alderman, Edward Hughes, Matthew Pochin, Joseph Thompson, Yoav Oved, Benjamin Seifert, Gabriel Gottlieb, Harry Style, Aaron Isaac

User Reviews

Incredible and Authentic Depiction

Ronit (Rachel Weisz), a single middle-aged photographer, returns to England from New York following the death of her father, an esteemed ultra-Orthodox rabbi who had been the unparalleled Torah and spiritual leader of this non-Hasidic congregation and its institutions (despite, as can be derived from context, having begun his adult life as a Zionist-leaning scion). It immediately becomes evident that due to personal issues she had left the community at a very young age and never looked back. As the story develops, we learn that Esti (Rachel McAdams), now wife of Dovid Kuperman (the departed rabbi's chief disciple and heir apparent, played by Alessandro Nivola) had struggled with similar issues alongside Ronit in their youth but had chosen a drastically different method of coping.

With Ronit's return, old sentiments are dredged up in a manner that upends the lives of all three in a community that simply has not developed tools for dealing with the full spectrum of matters involving private life, nature and choice that have in recent years become so normalized that we hardly lend them so much weight.

As each of the three struggle to cope with their issues, it becomes clear that there is a void in place of a guide in the doctrine of the community and that there is no one right way to cope with outlying struggles.

The directing of the picture and the portrayal of the three main characters is stellar. Aside from two seven-candle menorahs (which have no place in a Jewish home), this picture stands out as perhaps the most authentic portrayal of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in motion picture history.

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official Site

Country:

Ireland UK USA

Language:

English Hebrew

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

Gross USA:

$3,498,782

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$8,003,180

Company Credits

Production Co:

Braven Films, Element Pictures, Film 4

Technical Specs

Runtime:

114 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1