Growing up in an academic family-her father Geoffrey Alderman is an acclaimed professor of British Jewish history-Alderman flourished in a world of ideas and words. 'This is a love story that explores how their relationships evolve over time, and how their lives are affected by grief,' explains Lelio, adding, 'At the heart of Disobedience is something very universal.'Īfter four novels and many other projects, Alderman has demonstrated a unique talent for making foreign worlds and media immediate and emotional. Chilean director Sebastián Lelio, who co-wrote the screenplay with Rebecca Lenkiewicz, understood that Alderman had written a tale that spoke to everyone, regardless of nationality.

Despite the different paths that Esti and Ronit have travelled since being teenagers, they quickly discover a long-buried passion for each other. When Ronit (Weisz), the estranged daughter of a Rabbi, returns to her London Orthodox community for her father's funeral, she reconnects with her childhood friend Dovid (Alessandro Nivola) and his wife Esti (Rachel McAdams). 'If you find a story of transgression within an ordered society, you have a great universal drama that anyone can relate to,' explains Weisz. But university is no grounding for adult life, and when, years later, tragedy strikes they are entirely unprepared.After reading Naomi's Alderman's award-winning novel Disobedience, Rachel Weisz recognized immediately why this book would make a compelling film. And James, already damaged by Oxford and looking for a group to belong to.įor a time they live in a charmed world of learning and parties and love affairs. Mark gathers around him an impressionable group of students: glamorous Emmanuella, who always has a new boyfriend in tow Franny and Simon, best friends and occasional lovers musician Jess, whose calm exterior hides passionate depths. Its owner is the mercurial, charismatic Mark Winters, whose rackety trust-fund upbringing has left him as troubled and unpredictable as he is wildly promiscuous. Hidden away in an Oxford back street is a crumbling Georgian mansion, unknown to any but the few who possess a key to its unassuming front gate. Naomi Alderman's The Lessons reflects the truth that the lessons life teaches often come too late. From the author of The Power, winner of the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2017

The lessons by naomi alderman