Passes the Bechdel test

Disobedience

Name: Disobedience
Released: 2018

2018. Directed by Sebastián Lelio, written by Sebastián Lelio and Rebecca Lenkiewicz and Naomi Alderman.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
8 women characters. 6 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 16 scenes out of 152.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.

The film

From a screenplay by Sebastián Lelio and Rebecca Lenkiewicz, the film follows a woman as she returns to her Orthodox Jewish community that shunned her decades earlier for an attraction to a female childhood friend. Once back, their passions reignite as they explore the boundaries of faith and sexuality.

Released: 27 Apr 2018
Genres: Drama
Rated: R
IMDb: 6.6 / 10
Metascore: 74 / 100
Awards: 5 wins & 36 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Ronit 221 lines, woman
Dovid 173 lines, man
Esti 160 lines, woman
Hartog 33 lines
Fruma 15 lines, woman
Rivkah 11 lines, woman
Agent 9 lines
Goldfarb 9 lines
Mrs. Shapiro 8 lines, woman
Old Man 7 lines, man

Full cast, 37 people

Rachel Weisz as Ronit Krushka
Rachel McAdams as Esti Kuperman
Alessandro Nivola as Dovid Kuperman
Allan Corduner as Moshe Hartog
Anton Lesser as Rav Krushka
Nicholas Woodeson as Rabbi Goldfarb
David Fleeshman as Yosef Kirschbaum
Steve Furst as Dr. Gideon Rigler
Trevor Allan Davies as Tattooed Man
Sophia Brown as Photographic Studio Assistant
Anthony Dowding as Man in Bar
Bernice Stegers as Fruma Hartog
Clara Francis as Hinda
Lia Cohen as Rina
Cara Horgan as Miss Scheinberg
Orlando Brooke as Student 1
Dominic Applewhite as Student 2
Omri Rose as Student 3
Liza Sadovy as Rebbetzin Goldfarb
Ruth Lass as Wig Shop Assistant
Alexis Zegerman as Rivka
Benjamin Tuttlebee as Shmuli
Mark Stobbart as Lev
Rose Walker as Sara
Caroline Gruber as Mrs Hannah Shapiro
Eliot Alderman as Choir Member
Adrian Alexander as Choir Member
Joseph Thompson as Choir Member
Gabriel Gottlieb as Choir Member
Aaron Isaac as Choir Member
Julian Sander as Choir Member
Jason Blair as Choir Member
Moshe Caplan as Choir Member
Eliot Berman as Choir Member
Adam Lazarus as Sam (Trainee Rabbi) (uncredited)
Dave Simon as Hesped (uncredited)
Rene Costa as Rabbi (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 10% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 152

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers

Scenes	Women's lines	Men's lines
1 to 4	0	5
5 to 8	0	0
9 to 12	11	7
13 to 16	2	0
17 to 20	0	0
21 to 24	11	11
25 to 28	47	21
29 to 32	17	10
33 to 36	27	7
37 to 40	16	18
41 to 44	2	16
45 to 48	4	2
49 to 52	30	9
53 to 56	25	1
57 to 60	6	0
61 to 64	17	0
65 to 68	59	1
69 to 72	3	5
73 to 76	5	2
77 to 80	12	0
81 to 84	23	10
85 to 88	0	0
89 to 92	19	8
93 to 96	15	19
97 to 100	11	0
101 to 104	3	0
105 to 108	0	8
109 to 112	15	9
113 to 116	0	0
117 to 120	0	0
121 to 124	15	4
125 to 128	2	2
129 to 132	17	23
133 to 136	10	1
137 to 140	6	18
141 to 144	0	0
145 to 148	13	1
149 to 152	2	0

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.

ESTI: Yes.. Yes you must. RONIT: What?

ESTI: I’ll do it. RONIT: You two.. You’re married.. RONIT: You’re married..

RONIT: Nobody told me. You didn’t let me know. ESTI: You disappeared.

ESTI: I’ll get you some hangers. ESTI: What? I look older? RONIT: I wasn’t thinking that. ESTI: I look tired. We all do.

RONIT: I’m fine. I want to have a wander round the old places. ESTI: You’ve read Othello haven’t you? Mrs. Shapiro wants your approval on my teaching it.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 67 are women's.

445 lines from women, 218 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

8 women and 15 men in the cast. 6 women and 7 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 7 of 736. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 26 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 61% of the words (3,183), men 39% (2,015). Women have 67% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.

Conversations between two named characters

Two women

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

6 of the 12 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 44% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Sebastián Lelio (man)
Written by: Rebecca Lenkiewicz (woman), Sebastián Lelio (man)
From the novel by: Naomi Alderman (woman)
Produced by: Rachel Weisz (woman), Ed Guiney (man), Frida Torresblanco (woman)
Shot by: Danny Cohen (man)
Edited by: Nathan Nugent (man)
Music by: Matthew Herbert (man)
Production design by: Sarah Finlay (woman)
Costumes by: Odile Dicks-Mireaux (woman)