About Elly

"About Elly" seems like a rough sketch for "A Separation" (2011), one of the best films of the current century IMHO. In both cases, Farhadi's focused on social lies and deceptions and the ways they come back to bite us--as well as on the contrasts and contradictions between the lives and aspirations of contemporary Iranians and the restrictive social norms of Islam--but "Elly"'s not as tightly plotted or as involving. In many ways it's like typical film-festival fare from a non-Western country; it's a little hard to keep track of the characters at first, and it's not always clear why they're behaving the way they do.... The setup's intriguing: old college friends from Tehran--three married couples and their kids and a recent divorcé--and a slightly mysterious plus one, Elly, share a clapped-out weekend cottage on the Caspian Sea. At first everyone's acting goofy, singing and busting little Zorbalike dance moves.

Then something happens--two things really--and everything changes. The sky darkens, the sea gets rough, and husbands and wives are (almost literally in one case) at each other's throats. Suddenly these 21st-century sophisticates are chattering about evil portents and lost honor and fear of shaming; several layers of deception have to be unwrapped before the film's ambiguous ending. Expert cast (including the husband from "A Separation" and Nefertari from "Exodus: Gods and Kings"[!)]; the performances seem a little over the top at times, but that may just be a cultural thing; great cinematography. Certainly worth watching, prob'ly more so if you've already seen "A Separation."

You can't breathe, you can not even shout, you can not cry, you'll be just stay fascinated till the end and the final music is just as fantastic as the whole movie itself; The roles are played by some of the best actors and actresses of Iran, who actually LIVE the roles and you just get engaged with everything that's going on there as if you are one of them; I loved it so much; Thanks to Asghar Farhadi for always making us such good movies; I do recommend everyone to see this if the haven't yet; I'm gonna see it again for sure....... I really love the scene where the sound of Eli gets mixed with the cruel sound of Sea which really makes you nervous; gives some notices about the upcoming events;

that wasn't what i expected because i thought it would be a normal film but since I've seen it, i cannot stop thinking about it...i had never seen any movie like that before.it shocked me during it and after it.i cannot put it in the words as i can't speak English well...anyway,great movie and actually great Iranian movie so far...best natural plays,best good directed film,you cannot imagine what I'm trying to say if you haven't seen it yet...i have seen all of his films and i enjoyed them a lot and all i know about him that he is a real talented and genius Iranian who0 knows what he wants and what he is about to create...i watched this movie just once but I'm gonna buy its DVD and then watch it over and over to find more the other things that i couldn't find that time.it is so hard to excite the people's emotions but he proved that if you tell the truth,it seems really easy.that was my country's reality and i cannot deny it.that's what we are gonna do and say and think if we be on that situation...thanks Mr.director,I'm proud of you so much

There are no words to explain this masterpiece. Keeps you busy for a few days, makes you think about it, and just leaves you in awe.

The film starts with a simple plot, and ends with much more simplicity. Farhadi proves to be a real master in storytelling. He is believed to be one of the best script writers in Iran. But now he seems to be alone on top, far from his other fellow cinematographers.

The cast is great, but so is the director. No other Iranian movie has ever been as smart as About Elly in directing the actors and putting the viewer inside the locations of the film, between the act and close to the story. The camera acts as one of the key elements in the movie and the story. Without even a single note of music, and making good use of spectacular dialogs, the 2 hour journey will come to an end in a shocking way.

About Elly was honored the best film by Iranian film critics, with a sweeping 17 from 19 votes.

I came to see Farhadi's flick at Kerala Film Festival. It Won the best picture award Golden Chakoram there. Farhadi's sketch human interactions are so lucid. How humans react to chaos and how the manipulative nature of humans come into act in time of difficulties is clearly depicted in this film. It reveals a true fact about the body of lies used by ordinary people in their ordinary lives. We lie thousand times a week. When we are thinking about manipulations, its not only about the conspiracies by the big power houses. In fact the root of all those are present in common man. About Elly beautifully depicts how common man, including women and children uses lies and these body of lies causes to make relevant impact on their lives in changing situations.Even though film creates a tense atmosphere of chaos caused by the disappearance of Elly, at one stage delegates started laughing during the screening.Farhadi's little picture even created a satirical approach on how man makes things complicated with his manipulations. On the whole it is a good introspective into the real human nature...