Darbareye Elly (2009) Reviews

• All About Elly

  corrosion-22009-07-04

  With Chaharshanbe-Soori (Fireworks Wednesday) and now Darbareye Elly (About Elly), Asghar Farhadi has shot right to the top and joined an elite club of Iranian film makers, such as Kiarostami, Majidi and Mehrjui, whose films are appreciated worldwide. Farhadi's films are truly world class and full of nuances and deft touches not usually found in Iranian movies. About Elly starts deceptively simple. A group of married couples, some with children, have come to a seaside town for a short break. The only single people in the group are Ahmad (Shahab Hosseini) who has recently separated from his German wife and Elly (Taraneh Alidoosti) who is a nursery teacher to Sepideh (Golshifteh Farahani)'s child. Sepideh has organized the whole trip, as well as playing matchmaker to Ahmad and Elly. The film really takes off when, in an apparent attempt to rescue one of the children from drowning, Elly disappears. Was she drowned? Did she just leave because she was embarrassed by the group's snide remarks about her and Ahmad? There are echoes of Antonioni's L'Aventura here but there is a big difference between the two films. Wheras in L'Aventura the missing girl quickly became forgotten by the group, here Elly becomes center of attention. The group realize how little they knew her; they don't even know her full name (Elly is a shortened version of several names). The questions keep surfacing: who was Elly and why did she agree to accompany a group of relative strangers for a few days in another town? (something highly uncommon for a single girl in Iran). About Elly is a worthy follow up to Farhadi's Chaharshanbe-Soori (Fireworks Wednesday). Again, as in that movie, Farhadi examines the consequences of lies and deceptions. He shows that even mundane lies of convenience, if piled on top of one another, can lead to unforeseen events. In addition to his insightful scripts, Farhadi clearly has an ability to draw top notch, and often career best, performances from his cast. All the actors here are superb but special mention must go to Golshifteh Farahani, Shahab Hosseini and Saber Abar. Like Chaharshanbe-Soori, About Elly demands and repays several viewings.

• A new genre of movies... NICE FILM...thumbs up

  arianaa302012-01-16

  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.

• a non forgettable piece of work

  mahsaee2009-08-30

  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;

• Drama, suspense and tension in real life

  harry_tk_yung2009-03-30

  The most remarkable thing about this Berlin Silver Bear directing (Asghar Farhadi) winner is that despite all the suspense and tension, what it is about is so ordinary daily life that it could easily happen to anybody, anywhere. What is gripping is the way the story is told through a volatile camera and how the underlying human characters and emotions are explored. The follow recap of events up to the first 45 minutes of this 2-hour film is technically not a spoiler, as I wouldn't even reveal details of the major incident that is the crucial turning point. And yet, it is a spoiler in the sense that some of the background only come out in the second half of the film, simply through dialogue of the character, that is, no convoluted flash back or time scramble which apparently still hasn't gone out of fashion in Hollywood. 11 people (4 man, 4 women, 3 kids) from Tehran drives to a seaside (the Caspian) resort for a 3-day holiday. There is however a hidden agenda. Seven of the adults are close friends – 2 couple, brother-and-sister pair and a single guy Ahmad (Shahab Hosseini) who just got divorced. The wife of one of the couples, Sepideh (Golshifteh Farahani), invites a pretty young woman along in the last minute, a match-making gambit for the divorced friend. Elly (Taraneh Alidousti) the attractive outsider is Sepideh's kid's teacher at the nursery school. It turns out that Sepideh doesn't even know her last name. What Sepideh does know though, is that Elly is engaged, but willing to come along because she is trying to get out of the relationship with her fiancé (Saber Abar). This Sepideh hides from everybody. In the first 45 minutes, the audience follows with mild interest the progress of this modern, middle-class group's seaside vacation and gets to gradually recognize some of the character, obvious starting with Elly and Ahmad. But something happens, switching the tone of the film quite abruptly, and the audience follows the film with gripping attention to the end. I must re-emphasize that there is no convoluted plots, credibility-stretching events and the likes of such that flood Hollywood movies. Everything that happens, as well as the people's reaction, is something that you and I can relate easily to our ordinary experience. The power of the film is derived from the way in which some of the facts unfold, to the audience as well as to the characters in the film. This is drama, suspense and tension in real life. The acting is excellent although the cast is unknown, with the exception of Golshifteh Farahani who acted opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in "Body of lies" (2008) as the charming nurse his characters falls in love with. The Iran depicted in this film is modern – except for the headscarf, the women are no different from what you'll find in any big city in the Western society. People's emotions and reaction to event and situations are quite universal. The human nature probed in this film, therefore, can be easily empathized with.

• Probably the best in Iranian cinema history

  amirsaharkhiz2009-02-10

  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.