After the critical bouquets showered on his A Fantastic Woman – the Oscars, Berlin and The Spirit Awards all joined the queue to hand over a trophy – director Sebastian Lelio is back in cinemas this week with a more subdued, but no less intense, offering. Set among the Orthodox Jewish community in North London, Disobedience also examines a relationship that provokes disapproval, but this time the focus is on the three people involved – and who are in an impossible situation.
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For Lelio, it’s his first film in the English, something of a challenge for one of the leading lights of Chilean cinema, but not enough of one to stop him sticking to the language for his next film, Gloria Bell, which arrives next year. But, for Disobedience, he was on entirely new territory – language, location, cast and crew. That cast included Rachel Weisz as an exiled daughter who returns home on the death of her father, Rachel McAdams as her closest friend, the reason for her exile who is now married to one of the leading lights in the synagogue, played by Alessandro Nivola. Weisz’s arrival stirs up long-buried memories but, more crucially, all the feelings that went with the relationship between the two women. And all three face losing everything they love.
Talking to THN’s Freda Cooper, Lelio explains the appeal of the story while both he and Nivola recall the research that went into making the film. And, with the BIFAs taking place on Sunday, they both look forward to the possibility of taking home a trophy or two. Disobedience is nominated in five categories, with nods for each of the three main actors.
Watch the interview in full below.
