About Elly (2009)

A group picnic takes a turn for the worse when a kid almost drowns and a woman mysteriously disappears.

Have you ever wondered what makes a film a good film? How about a brilliant film? Anyway, About Elly‘s brilliance lies in the story’s simplicity and the unfolding convolution. The common denominator for both is human nature and our unique ability to perplex our lives so we can give them meaning. There is an underlying beauty behind things we don’t fully understand, such as the intentions behind one’s utterances and actions, and About Elly explores such a notion to its core. It also explores the subjective perception of happiness and the false assumption that everyone finds it or experiences it the same way, something seemingly insignificant that can have incalculable consequences. The perfect storm is created when… the truth behind the intentions and happiness is revealed. And that’s what I’m gonna leave you with, story-wise.

Writer/director Asghar Farhadi has been phenomenal since the beginning of his career, and I’ll follow up with more of his achievements. This is the first Iranian film to be submitted for an Oskar, and even though it didn’t make it, Farhadi’s next film did and won – A Separation (2011). This is Golshifteh Farahani’s last film before she got banned from Iran [for leaving her country and working with Riddley Scott in Body of Lies (2008)]. It is not my place to judge the policies behind the country’s decisions, but she’s a heroine in my eyes, and I hope one day I get to meet her. Until then, I take my hat off to all the cast and crew who brought this to the world of cinema this masterpiece.

They say that truth is liberating, that it can set you free. Well, among others, it depends on how you find out or when you speak it.

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