About Elly (2009)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Film Perfection

Best movie ever!

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Solid 1 what it deserve , as a native Persian speaker this was far from a good movie , if i can call it a movie ! all conversations were legit trash talk and at the end total disappointment !

It took me a while to get to know the entire cast because it was my first (in a long time ) iranian movie. But once I got introduced with the cast, and their relationship with each other, it became easier to relate with them. The way they have fun, the excitement of the kind of trip they go on, is so much like us. *Fast forwarding...*I really liked the cinematography, especially in the scene where elly is shown for the last time. We have to see her running, having fun with the kite for excruciating few minutes, while something very terrible is happening behind, but we can't see it, because it's not in the frame. Then suddenly we just see the kite flying, and elly is no longer in the frame, we suddenly know that something terrible has happed to her too. *this is one of the best cinematography I have ever seen, and this is the exact part where I realise how talented the director is and I should watch more of his films.* Now what i liked the most :I like how it was a mystery from the very beginning, but then it was more of a psychological mystery rather than a whodunit. For them to find out what has happened to elly, they need to find out _About elly_(the title ) because only after they figure out how Elly is, they can find out what must have happened that day. But to find out _About Elly_ they really need to figure out what kind of people they are. This is extraordinary.And her fiancé left thinking that Elly never liked him, which is probably true but he never accepted this fact until elly was gone, and sepideh told him so, So he had to accept the bitter truth in the end.And as ahmad said, "bitter ending is better than endless bitterness" The movie is all about this quote.

This movie is about Elly. And not. Totally not about Elly, "About Elly" is an amazing movie, with great direction, amazing acting and a superb plot, that has so many layers, so many surprises and so many little details that you will not be able to stop watching.And it all starts in a quite relaxing manner, so relaxed that it wouldn't be a surprise if in the first 10-15 minutes you thought this was a 'realistic' movie of some families having a short holiday at the beach. But then things start to happen, and then more things, and if you didn't have enough, more things. The plot relies a lot in secrets within secrets, and in the actors capacity to deliver the dialogue with grit and authenticity. And the whole cast those an incredible job, with Golshifteh Farahani's Sepideh at its center. Farahani's interpretation will make the viewer worry and suffer with her character, till they are grabbing their hair in desperation at all that is happening on these holidays that were supposed to be so much fun."About Elly" is a drama and a mystery, an incredible tense movie, and an superb study of human psychology. Totally recommended.

Is the space in About Elly about merely a class divide, or does it also concern sociopolitical difference? Certainly Asghar Farhadi's representations will challenge what little and genuine coverage of the middle east we have in the west. He assigns the three middle-class families on vacation atypical cultural markers which aim to familiarise: their rambunctious hollering and yelling from their cars in a tunnel, the sporting of sunglasses on foreheads, the way they dance and play pranks with a bathroom door missing its lock. Although the women still wear their headdresses, these moments seek to de-mystify and wave away the inbuilt modesty of Iran that we may be more accustomed to. The boy overseeing the villa observes them with a strange curiosity as if he was mesmerised at the apparent freedoms they are afforded (and willingly flaunt). They joke about how wives have surpassed their 'masters' - western domestic scenes will find the same humour in the imagery of a ball and chain. But later Amir might as well wield the whip and tassel himself as the arguments turn physical. It seems that their modern guise may be little more than a slip-on. The openness and immodesty of these introductions may lure an viewer into a false sense of security, believing the characters and setting to have freed themselves from the implicit cultural codes of propriety and honour that still rule modern day Iran. A closer glance reveals lies that are offered easily because of certain situations, and how little white ones enlarge and begin to swallow them. We see how Elly conceals the purpose of her trip to her mother, and how this later takes on a more deceitful tone. Sepideh likewise partakes in this practice, using it as a tool to barter for their accommodation, but the lie reveals other lies that may have already become truth in her mind. Is the partnership that she has set up already becoming a betrothal in her eyes? Is it merely a matter of time between the young teacher and the handsome divorcée? What Farhadi does is merge these questions of class and culture into a typical mystery, and expose how little we know and understand these characters beyond their surface. Slowly, the dialogue and interactions unveil the more conservative mindsets that rear their head when push comes to shove. Ideals of womanhood and femininity are warped and bargained; they tease each other about their domestic duties and place, and make reference to the virtues of the fairer sex ("A woman must come", "Better if a woman calls"). See how Elly shrinks to what she believes must be her default state in the household, shunted into corners, into backseats, offering to clean, not quite comfortable with the ease of her companions (especially the female ones, as they later interrogate what seems like an offhand comment). In one moment they are playfully rubbing Arash's head for his contribution in charades, the next propping him up like a toy and probing him for answers (and when that does not reveal more, mistreatment comes into play). Jafarian visualises the sudden disconnect through his blocking, where the group, once bunched together on the couch, and able to face each other in circles, are now separate individuals, leaning against walls, wandering away off the path, storming in and out of rooms to conduct their own conversations and investigations. His greatest achievement is the follow shot that captures Elly's last living moments on screen; the camera tracks her as she flies the kite, never allowing her to leave the confines of the frame, and holding and holding until her peals of laughter become uncertainty. The shakiness of the camera and the cuts becomes more and more erratic, and Jafarian merges form and content into a visualisation of Elly's shocking realisation that a kite, however freely and gracefully it rides the winds, is still tethered to its holder via string. Farhadi is known mostly for his Oscar winning A Separation, one of the great films of the 21st century that pondered struggles of religion, class and gender within the context of personal predicament. One of its greatest strengths was its utter refusal to create bias and take sides - we are able to survey the events from the perspective of all its participants, and understand even the actions that we most ardently disagree with. Some of the figures in About Elly are harder to empathise with. We are not quite sure, for example, exactly the type of monster that her fiancé may or may not be, and how this factored into her choice. The film has been compared widely to L'Avventura, and in forming these comparisons I have come to see that the best films about the mystery of a disappearance forgo the cold logic and process of a thriller and instead survey the effects on those surrounding the event. Antonioni's modernist masterpiece began with the same premise, but descended into a harsh exposure of the shallow excess and emptiness of its characters' existences. Spoorloos, or The Vanishing, another foreign film in the same vein, reveals its murderer and motive early on, but is more interested in investigating the evils and pitfalls of curiosity and guilt over time. Similarly, About Elly is not wholly concerned with solving the mystery, but instead focuses on how its characters partake in lies and deceit, and how this unearths older, buried issues they have tried so desperately to discard.