It sounds like the setup for a conventional thriller or horror movie: A man comes home and reunites with friends from his college days for a vacation in a cabin at the beach—and everything goes terribly wrong. But there’s nothing conventional about master filmmaker Asghar Farhadi’s 2009 feature About Elly, which finally reached screens in the U.S. in 2015.
Set in Northern Iran on the edge of the Caspian Sea, the story focuses on how this high-spirited getaway goes awry. Accompanied unexpectedly by Elly, a young nursery school teacher, the vacationers will find that Elly’s reasons for joining them have the potential to burn down their relationships, and when calamity strikes, all of them find themselves in danger.
Moviegoers should avoid any other information, as much of this film’s power comes from the way its crises unfold suddenly and unexpectedly. Farhadi is an exemplary storyteller: Instead of prioritizing a message or a lesson, he prefers to study how his characters reveal themselves in tense situations, and he composes images and scenes in ways that expose desires, fears, and imbalances of power that represent troubles prevalent in Iranian culture.
But Farhadi’s affection for his characters, in spite of their flaws, inspires respect in the audience—particularly for his female characters, who must constantly push back against centuries of traditional patriarchy in order to be heard and valued, and whose beauty and poise and dignity burn brightly in the company of arrogant, insensitive, and often combustible men.
American viewers in particular may find themselves challenged by this intimate portrait of an Iranian community, one that reveals just how insufficiently they have been represented in the art and entertainment of the West. —Jeffrey Overstreet (2015)
Arts & Faith Lists:
2015 Arts & Faith Ecumenical Jury — #10