About Elly (2009) - Asghar Farhadi

A group of middle-class families travel from Tehran to the northern seaside in an attempt to relax and spend time together by the seashore.  Sepideh invites, Elly, who is her daughter's teacher, to travel with the three families in order to introduce her to their recently divorced friend Ahmad.  The weekend takes a tragic turn when Elly goes missing, setting off a chain events which ultimately changes everything.   Asghar Farhadi's About Elly is an exceptional character piece that plays more like a mystery during the second half.  Before the accident the three families are extremely happy, playful and at peace with one and other.   This accident not only uncovers secrets about Elly, the woman almost no one knows anything about, but we experience the true relationships and casual deceits which exists between this group of friends.  The way these characters true nature is revealed is a thing of beauty, as if Farhadi means to suggest that in order to know someone's true self, one must be placed in a desperate situation.  I was particularly taken back by Golshifteh Farahani's performance as Sepideh.  A character so destroyed by grief that she feels alone and isolated, even though her family and friends are right by her side.  This film continues to show how remarkable Asghar Farhadi is in terms balancing characters and family dynamics.  No character in this film is treated as a villain or hero but as a fully-dimensional human being.
8.5/10

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