THE REEL: Disobedience

Disobedience is an adaptation of the Naomi Alderman novel by the same title.

Rav Krushka (Anton Lesser), a senior Rabbi in an Orthodox Jewish community in London, succumbs to illness while giving a sermon at the temple.

His estranged daughter, Ronit Krushka (Rachel Weisz), a renowned photographer in New York, gets a call from London informing her of her father’s demise.

When she arrives back at her hometown, it seems like people have forgotten who she is.

An obituary for the late rabbi even states that he died without having left children.

Ronit goes out of her way to ensure that people don’t just glaze over the fact that she is the daughter and heir to her father’s estate. She wants to make them appreciate that she is also part of the Jewish community that had turned its back on her ever since she went against the norm as a teenager.

Her non-conformity saw her sent off to school abroad, to keep her from “spoiling” the other “nice” Jewish girls.

Even as she is back, she still stands out unapologetically: she smokes, doesn’t dress modestly, freely associates with non-Jewish people, and is bisexual as well as promiscuous.

Dovid Kuperman (Alessandro Nivola), the favourite student of Ronit’s father at the temple and her childhood friend, insists that she come live with him and his wife, Esti Kuperman (Rachel McAdams), also a childhood friend of Ronit, during her stay at the town.

It turns out that one of the reasons that Ronit got sent away was because she and Esti were found out to be teenage lovers, and it was believed that Ronit was the one influencing Esti down this direction.

CONFRONTATION

The movie sees Ronit confronting her relatives and some town folks about their eagerness to erase her history as having been a member of the community just because she turned out different from everybody else.

She also tries to get Esti to live her real self, after Esti reveals to her that she hasn't been happy with Dovid and has always felt judged by the older town folks because of what happened between the two of them.

Essentially, she was married off to Dovid to hide the shame and also rid her of her “demons” that made her desire women.

This movie speaks to the core of most people who feel that society is placing a lot of pressure on them to be something they don’t exactly want to be.

I guess most of the credit will go to Naomi Alderman, for having written a novel that appeals to such a wide scope, not only for those feeling like they can’t express what their sexual orientation is, but the basic “I can’t be who you always want me to be” statement that a lot are battling to put out to those around them but are finding difficult to articulate.

Sebastián Lelio and Rebecca Lenkiewicz really put together an amazing screenplay that is very authentic.

Frida Torresblanco, Rachel Weisz and Ed Guiney have produced a wonderful picture and the acting in this movie was jaw dropping. I felt for Ronit, she just wants to be understood in order to be accepted by her community.

Even as she went on to live her life all these years, she realises that she hasn’t been able to achieve total happiness because there are certain pieces of her life that are still reeling from the rejection she faced.

Dovid and Esti are the perfect example that even though someone might have what society deems as perfect, because it conforms to what should be best-practice, it doesn’t mean that they are happy. There is no formula to happiness, and this movie asks “To what extent does your belief (or lack-thereof) hinder your pursuit of it?” Best thing about movies of these kind is that the scoring is done on point, and together with the shots and actions, sometimes the silent parts of the movies are the most powerful points.

Only disclaimer is that this movie is for very mature audiences. The use of strong language, nude and very sexual scenes are not fit for the family.