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About Elly

Original title: Darbareye Elly
  • 2009
  • TV-PG
  • 1h 59m
IMDb RATING
7.9/10
60K
YOUR RATING
Golshifteh Farahani in About Elly (2009)
Trailer for About Elly
Play trailer1:44
2 Videos
39 Photos
Psychological DramaDramaMystery

The mysterious disappearance of a kindergarten teacher during a picnic in the north of Iran is followed by a series of misadventures for her fellow travelers.The mysterious disappearance of a kindergarten teacher during a picnic in the north of Iran is followed by a series of misadventures for her fellow travelers.The mysterious disappearance of a kindergarten teacher during a picnic in the north of Iran is followed by a series of misadventures for her fellow travelers.

  • Director
    • Asghar Farhadi
  • Writer
    • Asghar Farhadi
  • Stars
    • Taraneh Alidoosti
    • Golshifteh Farahani
    • Shahab Hosseini
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.9/10
    60K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Asghar Farhadi
    • Writer
      • Asghar Farhadi
    • Stars
      • Taraneh Alidoosti
      • Golshifteh Farahani
      • Shahab Hosseini
    • 116User reviews
    • 155Critic reviews
    • 87Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 23 wins & 17 nominations total

    Videos2

    About Elly
    Trailer 1:44
    About Elly
    About Elly (Trailer)
    Trailer 1:45
    About Elly (Trailer)
    About Elly (Trailer)
    Trailer 1:45
    About Elly (Trailer)

    Photos38

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    Top cast30

    Edit
    Taraneh Alidoosti
    Taraneh Alidoosti
    • Elly
    Golshifteh Farahani
    Golshifteh Farahani
    • Sepideh
    Shahab Hosseini
    Shahab Hosseini
    • Ahmad
    Merila Zare'i
    Merila Zare'i
    • Shohreh
    Mani Haghighi
    Mani Haghighi
    • Amir
    Payman Maadi
    Payman Maadi
    • Peyman
    • (as Peyman Moaadi)
    Ra'na Azadivar
    Ra'na Azadivar
    • Naazi
    Ahmad Mehranfar
    Ahmad Mehranfar
    • Manoochehr
    Saber Abar
    Saber Abar
    • Alireza
    Milad Bagherifard
    • Manouchehr's brother
    Sajjad Dolati
    • Mehran
    Matin Fatourechi
    • Arash
    Abolfazl Heidari
    • Hamed
    Ehsan Nazari
    • Mohamad
    Masoud Naziri
    • Alireza
    Mohamad Ramezani Pour
    • Pilot
    Farshid Pourasghar
    • Farshid
    Amir Hossein Rezaee
    • Arvin Sahandi
    • Director
      • Asghar Farhadi
    • Writer
      • Asghar Farhadi
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews116

    7.959.5K
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    Featured reviews

    10arianaa30

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

    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.
    8The_late_Buddy_Ryan

    "She made me raise my hand to her!"

    "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."
    10Radu_A

    a mystery of happenstance - and a matchless masterpiece at that

    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.
    9manisg

    Fentastic

    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.
    8planktonrules

    Magnificent acting....

    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.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      In the charade scene, the actors really didn't know the correct answer, and they really guessed the words during the scene.
    • Goofs
      When they decide to stay in the villa and start to clean it, Ahmad calls the boy (Omid) by name, asking him about where he can find a vacuum cleaner. Seconds later, he asks the boy about his name.
    • Quotes

      Ahmad: A bitter ending is better than an endless bitterness.

    • Connections
      Referenced in Asho (2019)
    • Soundtracks
      Song For Eli
      Written by Andrea Bauer

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    FAQ

    • How long is About Elly?
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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • June 6, 2009 (Iran)
    • Countries of origin
      • Iran
      • France
    • Official site
      • sourehcinema
    • Languages
      • Persian
      • German
    • Also known as
      • Cô Giáo Elly
    • Filming locations
      • Tonekabon, Mazandaran, Iran(seaside city)
    • Production company
      • Dreamlab
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $470,760
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $13,180
      • Apr 12, 2015
    • Gross worldwide
      • $879,422
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 59 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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