SEBASTIÁN LELIO
After winning the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2017 with A FANTASTIC WOMAN (trailer here), Chilean director Sebastián Lelio has been relatively quiet. His last feature was the 2018 English-language remake of his 2013 film GLORIA (trailer here), but he’s set to release an adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s novel THE WONDER starring Florence Pugh next year for Netflix. Ahead of that release, I recommend checking out his pair of 2017 films: the Oscar-winning A FANTASTIC WOMAN and DISOBEDIENCE (trailer here). Starring Daniela Vega, A FANTASTIC WOMAN follows a transgender woman in Santiago as she grieves the death of her boyfriend. Lelio adorns this story of loss with fantastical flourishes that heighten Vega’s emotional performance. DISOBEDIENCE, Lelio’s first English-language feature, stars Rachel Weisz as a woman returning to the Orthodox Jewish community that she was forced to leave after she was found kissing her close childhood friend, played by Rachel McAdams. When the two reunite, passions flare again, and the two must decide what they now want, both from each other and their communities. Lelio’s direction and the Rachels’ lead performances build a pregnant tension that lasts for the entire film.
—Nolan Russell, Executive Assistant
