User reviews

"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."

Long breath taking shots. Perfect crew. Fantastic location. Sharpe and best cinematography & screenplay.

I pause when Taraneh Alidoosti flying kite. Unknowingly, I got some thrilling feeling. the screenplay, background music, camera and she brought me to like it was real and I was in front of sea to watching it. I took long breath to realise it was movie.

I feel that I was connected to film that is The director's touch and won the audience.

It is My second Iranian film and it changed everything about Iran. I missed lot. I plan to watch more film from various director.

Really It is great one, everyone must watch.

To say the most important thing first: 'All about Elly' requires unmitigated attention from the viewer. I actually watched it in the Berlin Festival last year, but didn't think too much of it as I was distracted. Since it won the Silver Bear and was voted by Iranian critics the best national film ever, I decided to give it another shot on DVD, and as it works sometimes, I realized that this film is not only a true gem, but one of those rare, timeless classics that may help to explain to posterity the reality of generations past.

What lulled me into a mistaken sense of boredom upon my first viewing was the unassuming start of the film. The simplicity of the plot - a group of young Tehrani couples going on a seaside weekend trip, with one of the wives trying to act as a matchmaker between a female colleague and an expat on vacation from Germany - is presented in such low-key fashion that if you don't know what's coming (and I didn't) it's hard to focus on the subtle hints of possible conflict. Also, while I've been to Iran and consider myself vaguely familiar with the complexities of life there, of course as a mere visitor you can catch but a fraction of what things mean, and since this is very much a jump into an unknown society, you really have to blank your mind to catch the drift of what the characters say.

Ironically, that's a stark contradiction to the usual Iranian festival fair: Kiarostami works a lot with metaphor (which he often endlessly repeats to drive the message home), Panahi with situation developments (which he exploits to the utmost degree to drive the message home), and therefore their works do not require much background info, though it sure helps. Farhadi's film asks for a bit more audience participation, as much of the conflict in the second half of the film stems from Iranian social reality, I would think. That is what, on my second viewing, convinces me of the timeless quality of this film: never before have I seen a director pull so much substance out of so little plot and setting.

Just because 'All about Elly' appears to be simple at first, it is actually really deep; once I suspected that every frame in this film means something and is not just there, I entered an alternate visual language, which then communicated the urgency of what Elly's disappearance meant to me. I felt that this film thereby manages to tell me emotionally what I could rationally never fully comprehend: what it means to actually live in a country like that. No other film from Iran has ever done that for me, and I've rarely seen a film from another culture that managed to do so. So I would assume that Farhadi has taken directing to another level here.

What's more: this isn't just a very artistic way to convey a message, it's also very entertaining. For once I was drawn into the characters, their sense of alarm and suspense kept me on the edge until the very end. There's a decent dose of Hitchcock in 'All about Elly' as unreal as that may sound. That's the real charm of this film: although it's demanding in terms of familiarity with the setting, it's international in its depiction of emotions anyone from anywhere can relate to.

In conclusion: Definitely not to be missed if you are just as much as remotely interested in Iran, or have a sweet tooth for excellent direction (though the French term 'mise-en-scène' hits the mark in this case). This is the kind of movie that should become part the curriculum of film students around the globe.

Based on my opinion, this movie was even better that A Saparation, an award winning Farhadi's film.

Farhadi proves adept at controlling the tone of his film. By slowly setting up the situation and the complex nexus of relationships between the characters, he lulls the audience into thinking the film will continue in a comic mode until Elly's disappearance. From then on, the film takes a serious tone. Lies come back to haunt the characters, and the consequences of these are unforgiving. Some of these lies were told due to particular proprieties necessary within Iranian society. The brilliance of Farhadi's script and direction becomes most apparent in the latter stages of the film. As one secret after another is revealed, Farhadi deftly maps out the shifts in the perceptions and behaviour of the characters toward each other as well as the viewer's perception of the characters. Farhadi's cast is uniformly excellent, especially Farahani, who compellingly registers Sepideh's shock at how her seemingly innocent matchmaking has taken such a tragic turn, as well as the way her character, like others in the film, is revealed to not be what it initially appears.

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;

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.

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

i didn't really know what to expect of this film so went to watch it quite blank, the cinema was packed with a mixed crowd which was promising.

i was drawn to the characters and their different personalities immediately.they were very believable and you almost felt as if you were there.

the film was very natural and the shots were nice and tidy, as a lot of foreign or arty films end up being too 'diffeent', this was easy to watch. as the plot became more complex the viewing was compelling and the director created suspense very well and built it up slowly.

the actresses and actors were really great, adding to the story's realism. as we the audience started to try and piece the mysteries of the story you just had to keep watching. i recommend it, the location was really pretty too.

i was happy to know there was a ending as a lot of foreign films end with no ending!!!! but this was satisfying however i would add that it became a little too long towards the end and some may have wanted a different ending to that chosen.

all together an excellent film to watch.

ABOUT ELLY is an interesting and highly watchable Iranian film that's been marketed as a mystery type thriller, although in fact it's a piece of relevant and timely social commentary. The storyline is about a group of young people - friends, family, and offspring - who gather together for a weekend of fun at a beach house. However, disaster strikes when a child is washed into the sea and one of the women goes missing. The first thing that strikes the viewer is that ABOUT ELLY is a very well made film. The cinematography is excellent with lots of beautiful shots both of scenery and actors. The acting is of a realistic standard and despite the drama of the storyline there's never any melodrama or over the top emoting going on.

Writer/director Asghar Farhadi uses the film's narrative to explore questions of what it means to be young and carefree in modern-day Iran. In particular, gender relationships are explored in detail, particularly when it comes to permissiveness and the like, and to what extent a young woman has freedom in society to do as she wishes. It's all highly interesting, giving western audiences a chance to find out something about what a little-known country is really like for the people living there.

This movie strikes me as belonging to that regrettably burgeoning category of "movies that are made for the sake of making a movie". Obviously I can't comment on the motivations of the director but it bears all the hallmarks of a movie that was made up as it went along. In my simplistic mind a good movie can achieve 2 results – it either entertains you or it presents some hypothesis of the directors for consideration. The later category can be implemented in two ways – it can ram the message down the audience's throat so that the message is abundantly clear, or it presents a few clues from which the either the astute viewer can work out the puzzle or the less astute viewer can get confused or bored and turn it off. As a provider of entertainment this movie fails – while provides an interesting glimpse into the lives of a group of affluent Terhanians there is no plot per se. As a provider of a message it also fails. The other reviews on this site document at length theories about "lies" and the effects they can have. This seems to me to be no more than trying to pin depth and meaning to a movie which is simply not there. Sure, one of the characters (Sepideh) seems to be a hair's breadth away from being a pathological liar, and from time to time other characters also lie in quite bizarre ways for reasons that are difficult to fathom – for example why would you tell someone their fiancée was injured in a car crash rather than drowned? But these lies do nothing to effect the outcome of the movie other than to drag it out and provide some sort of confusion that presumably is supposed to manifest itself as tension in the audience. None of the lies resulted in Elly's death or had any material effect on the outcome, such that that was. This is not a bad film, but it is a lazy one, the director not bothering to provide a real story and trying to pretend there is something deep and meaningful hiding behind some manufactured pretext. It is a shell trying to pretend it has substance, a "Waiting for Godot" where nothing worthwhile, honest or profound is revealed during the wait. As others have commented the acting was excellent, especially since it has the feel of a movie that was substantially improvised.

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...

A few years ago, A Separation won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. This Iranian movie was exquisitely acted and director Asghar Farhadi must have been justifiably proud of his work at the helm. Not surprisingly, another one of Farhadi's films has just been released to theaters in the States. However, oddly, it's actually a film he made before A Separation! About Elly is from 2009 and once again features superb acting.

The film is set during a holiday in Iran. A group of friends have decided on a brief trip together and are using it to try to set up their friend, Ahmad, with a pretty young lady named Elly. Most of these friends don't know Elly--but Sepideh does and thinks she'll be a good match for the guy. The first portion of the film seems pretty mundane with the usual banter you'd expect during a holiday getaway. However, things turn dark when one of the small children nearly drowns. The boy is saved but after the confusion dies down, everyone starts to wonder where Elly got to. Perhaps she jumped in the water to try to save the boy and drowned herself or perhaps she just left. After all, she DID insist on going home the following morning...and it was the following morning when the boy nearly died. What's next? See the film.

This movie is an interesting character study as well as a cautionary tale about lies and half-truths. Once again, Farhadi did a wonderful job with the film and the actors really deserve kudos for their realistic performances. In particular, I noticed that the children really seemed scared when they should have been and the adults later begin to show definite signs of stress. It was hard to tell that they were really acting--as if Farhadi actually did something to the actress playing Elly!

Despite my loving the acting and direction, I'll admit that this is certainly not a film for everyone. Some folks don't like films with subtitles, some will find the subject matter a bit too mundane and some might be a bit put off by the ending. I didn't mind the first two minor concerns but I, too, thought the ending was perhaps a bit weak. Still, the film is a marvelous showcase for the folks involved and deserves to be seen. Well worth your time if you can find it in your local theaters--which isn't always easy with foreign language movies.

A group of middle-class friends travel from Tehran to spend the weekend at the seaside. Sepideh (Golshifteh Farahani) invites Elly (Taraneh Alidoosti), who is the young teacher of her little daughter, to travel with the three families in order to introduce her to their recently divorced friend Ahmad (Shahab Hosseini) that lives in Germany. Ahmad will spend a few days in Iran and asked the cooperative Sepideh if she can find a fiancée for him. On the next morning, two women go shopping in the town and the Elly tells that she will return to Tehran since her mother has been recently submitted to a heart surgery, but Sepideh asks her to stay and hides her luggage. The children are playing in the sea and one mother asks Elly to watch them. Out of the blue, Sepideh's daughter calls the men that are playing volleyball to rescue one of the children from the water. They rescue the little boy and they seek out Elly, questioning whether she has drowned or returned to Tehran. What has happened to Elly?

"Darbareye Elly" is a spectacular Iranian film, awarded with eleven wins including the Silver Berlin Bear in the category Best Director and with six nominations. The realistic story is impressive, giving the sensation of a documentary through a handy camera. The heartbreaking story makes sense in the values of the Iranian society, where adultery might be punished with death sentence through stoning. The discussion about the "status quo" of Elly, who can not call off her commitment with her fiancé, is a brilliant panel of the thoughts and judgment of their society. I am a fan of Iranian cinema, but "Darbareye Elly" has overcome all my best expectations and is among the best Iranian films I have had the chance to see and I will certainly recommend it to my cinephile friends. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "À Procura de Elly" ("Seeking out Elly")

......you move with the actors.you feel with the actors.you cry and you laugh with them and.................................................in my opinion director of this film is so strong that can influence on the viewers like this and the cast of film do their job as the best that they can.they perform like that we can not believe that this is movie,but some viewers says that it doesn't have strong story and it's story was boring.this is not my idea but i think it is necessary to discuss about it.on the whole it is a very strong film that can be as a change in my country's cinema .asghar farhadi do the thing that the other director could not.we feel very proud for it's nomination for many awards

This movie is a excellent example of how happy moments can turn into nightmares. It's also like « Wajda », the proof that those oriental productions can do great (and better) movies than the usual American production : without any money, any special effects, any worldwide « people », they achieve the basic goal of cinema (the one that ignores Hollywood) : telling a story about the human condition (just the common « us » so not anymore focused about the « people », the privileged).

The first thing that i noticed here is how much green this country can be as i expected more sand and heat ! Then, the movie really punched me (as « Wadja ») as nowadays, i have got a panic button when a story « threatens » young kids. After this episode, the movie keeps going strong as it explores the consequences of not being transparent, sincere and honest. The habit of telling « little lies » really explodes the situation here and this tension was gripping.

The remarkable factor is the cast. Except Golshifteh, i can't name the other adults and however they are totally convincing. You can see that all women wears the veil and they don't take it as an oppression. But i know that appearances can be deceiving. To go further, you can see that the villa which means at first an extraordinary break for the families is close to a ruin. Thus, if i was an American watching this movie in my incredible Malibu Villa and then hearing news of my administration saying that this faraway country is the land of evil, i surely wonder where is the truth or at least, i would inquire the origin of my standard of living !