2012’s Oscar winner for best foreign language film, “A Separation” introduced a phenomenal new talent to the world in director Asghar Farhadi. The good news is that Farhadi has been making quietly brilliant cinema for over a decade. And these films are slowly making their way onto a wider stage.
2009’s About Elly is a perfect case in point. A group of friends leave Tehran for a long weekend on the Caspian Sea. A young nursery teacher named Elly is invited along to join the good friends and family. The reason is soon made apparent. She’s being set-up with a recently divorced man.
What seems simple on the surface rarely is in a Farhadi film, and over an easy-going holiday, tensions rise until a crisis point is triggered, and Elly goes missing. A mystery develops and as the drama heightens, Farhadi zooms in on the issues inherent in truth, lies, and the places in between. What is the truth About Elly?
Asghar Farhadi
2009
Iran
Persian
119 MIN
PG
Winner: Best Screenplay, Grand Jury Prize, Asia Pacific Screen Awards 2009
Winner: Best Director, Berlin International Film Festival 2009
Winner: Best Film, Best Director, Best Sound, Fajr Film Festival 2009
Winner: Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature, Tribeca Film Festival 2009
“Outstanding…superbly acted, morally challenging, packed with legitimate suspense, this is film-making of a high order.”
- Philip French, The Observer
★★★★ “A really absorbing picture, powerfully acted, disturbing and suspenseful. Anyone who admired A Separation will want to see it…a fascinating psychological drama.”
- Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
"It's an incisive portrait of a particular society, but it should resonate everywhere."
- Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle
