That is until she and Ronit finally cross paths again and allow themselves a moment of genuine intimacy in what is already Disobedience’s most talked about scene: Ronit and Esti alone in a hotel room. It is the only sequence in which McAdams’ character takes off her wig in front of anyone other than her husband (Alessandro Nivola), and it is the only time she and Ronit are allowed to have deliberate, and fairly graphic by American cinema standards, contact. It is a lengthy love scene that is meant to push boundaries, even with its lack of nudity yet belabored image of shared spitting. Given the directness of the sequence, which is the centerpiece of the film, it also needed to be broached our interview with the film’s director, Seabastián Lelio. Lelio, who is fresh off his Oscar winning A Fantastic Woman, gave a thoughtful and detailed answer about how the sequence was designed, storyboarded, and met every step of the way with approval by Weisz and McAdams, who were partners in what would and would not be seen. For Lelio the sequence is crucial to both of their arcs, which involves each remembering and reconnecting with the full picture of their identity—identities that have been fractured more or less their entire adult lives. Said Lelio, “I think they were young and probably inexperienced. I think what really defined their lives, in a certain way, or marked them, is the fact that Ronit escaped, or was expelled or whatever, but she ran away from there. By doing that… she could create her own persona, but she lost touch with her origins. You cannot live like that. If you want to be original, you have to be in touch with the origin. That’s where the word comes from. She has that dichotomy. She carries that paradox within herself. We’ll have our full interview with Lelio next week, but in the meantime, you can check out Disobedience, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, in limited release right now.
