Disobedience

Chilean director Sebastián Lelio, whose transgender drama A Fantastic Woman won the Oscar this yearn for Best Foreign Language Film, adapted Naomi Alderman’s 2006 novel as his first English-language film. Set in Hendon, the north London suburb where Alderman—a former Orthodox Jew—grew up, the story begins with elderly Rav Krushka (Anton Lesser) giving what will be his last sermon, defining free will as a divine gift. After he dies, his long-estranged daughter, New York avant-garde photographer Ronit (Rachel Weisz), rushes home, but within the local insular and devoutly religious patriarchy she is treated with courteous but obvious contempt. Ronit openly smokes, doesn’t cover her head, and rails against “institutional obligation.” Greeting her where they are sitting shiva is Rabbi Dovid (Alessandro Nivola), her father’s disciple/surrogate son, who is soon to be chosen as her father’s successor. To her astonishment, Ronit discovers that Dovid is married to her closest friend—and furtive teenage lover—Esti (Rachel McAdams). Their lesbian relationship is immediately rekindled, culminating in an afternoon of anguish and erotic ecstasy, after which—predictably—their secret is discovered. The two Rachels deliver sympathetically realistic performances and Nivola’s restrained anguish is palpable, but while the film puts a spotlight on the austere manners and mores of the close-knit, cloistered Hasidic community, it also suffers from a somewhat overly simplistic and melodramatic portrayal of sadly repressed and oppressed women. A strong optional purchase. (S. Granger)