Review of About Elly / درباره الی, , directed by Asghar Farhadi

Despite having studied Iranian American culture in graduate school for a few semesters or two, something I found myself thinking about was how I was never exposed to Iranian film growing up. When I did have my own money to afford subscriptions to like Criterion and MUBI, that was when I started watching more movies from my family’s country.

Like I always knew people liked Kiarostami and Farhadi were acknowledged on the global stage, but we didn’t watch movies. I also was not formally exposed to Farsi, so I could not read or write at all.

That said, I’ve been exploring more Iranian cinema lately in an attempt to try and understand Iran more. I don’t know if I’ll ever have the opportunity to visit my family’s hometown considering how the world is, at least I can get close through film and literature.

I decided to watch About Elly because of these reasons, and I saw it on one of the platforms I pay for. I had nothing to do that day, so I just sat down and watched it.

Let’s get into the review!

On a vacation to the Caspian Sea, a last minute addition to their party goes missing.

This is a movie about a group of Iranians, who are most likely in the middle class, preparing to go on a trip. Sepideh, who is one of the main characters, is going with her husband Amir and their daughter. We also meet couple Shohreh and Peyman, who are bringing their two kids, and Nazy and Manuchehr, who are the only who don’t have any kids. Ahmad is the only one of these friends who is not married and is coming.

At the last minute, Sepideh decides to invite her daughter’s teacher Elly. She wants Elly to meet Ahmad, who recently got divorced and is coming from Germany. There’s some potential for these two romantically, and Sepideh wants to capitlize on that.

However, things first go wrong when the mansion Sepideh booked is unavailable. Turns out the owners are coming home sooner than expected. The woman in charge of the home tells Sepideh to have everyone stay in an abandoned villa by the beach, and Sepideh lies to her and says Ahmad and Elly are on a honeymoon.

Turns out the two single folks on this trip do have feelings for each other, but Elly is much too shy to do anything about it. Elly calls her mom while they’re there, and says that she is with coworkers (she is not), and she will be back in Tehran the next day. She tells her mother not to tell anyone about this as well, which is a red flag.

While this happens, Sepideh hides Elly’s luggage, as she does not want her to leave. Elly is asked to watch the children as they play by the ocean, and Sepideh goes off on an errand. However, everyone panics later when Arash is seen floating in the ocean and Elly is nowhere to be found.

They save Arash, but no one knows what happened to Elly. She could have drowned, but she could have also gone back to Tehran. They search for her, but the police are eventually called. People then start blaming each other for what has happened.

It also comes to light that Sepideh was lying about something: Elly was engaged, and she knew that. Turns out Elly was not wanting to marry her fiance Alireza, and Sepideh invited her on the trip to meet Ahmad and see an option out. Elly said no originally, but Sepideh pressured her to come.

Alireza then shows up and goes after Ahmad. He then questions Sepideh on Elly’s intentions, if she wanted to do this, and Sepideh, pressured by the others, lies and says that Elly came without any kind of reservations about what was to come.

Soon after, a body is found. Alireza is taken to the mortuary, and he confirms it is Elly as he starts sobbing.

Overall Thoughts

Farhadi movies are interesting in the way they depict everyday Iranian society. Considering this is a group of middle class Iranians, the focus on the female characters compels me specifically.

For example, this is also about agency at some points. Elly does not want to marry Alireza, but Sepideh pressures her into coming and trying to explore other options. Because Iranian is such a patriarchal society, Elly doesn’t really have a choice if this was an arranged marriage.

We don’t know if it is, but the traditional expectations of Iranian culture bleed in, especially with the woman who manages the villa questions if the single single people are married—she would not have done that if they were two men.

Go watch this one if you haven’t already and are interested in Iranian contemporary cinema.

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