With his third film released in this country, Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi continues his growth in stature and deserves to be included among the very best international auteurs. The brilliantly absorbing About Elly was filmed two years before Farhadi’s Oscar-winning gem A Separation (2011) and withheld from domestic distribution until now. Like A Separation and The Past (2013), About Elly also acutely deals with tough ethical choices within the confines of social codes of behavior, and the whole idea of traditionalism versus modernity in a rapidly changing society. It’s also one hell of a suspense film with all around terrific acting.
A group of middle-class urban couples and their young children take off on holiday to a villa on the Caspian Sea. One of the wives, Sepideh (an excellent Golshifteh Farahani), implores her child’s kindergarten teacher, Elly (Taraneh Alidoosti) to come along. Elly may be less progressive than the couples, who spontaneously dance, break out into song, and play a savvy game of charades. Also along is a recently divorced single male friend of the group. Ahmad (Shahab Hosseini) is on holiday from Germany, where he’d gone to live with his ex-bride. The group makes little effort to downplay their collective wish to match up the two young singles.
Elly seems mysterious and she keeps insisting she can only stay one night. Sepideh also seems one to hold onto secrets. She fails to tell the group she hasn’t actually rented their villa for the entire weekend. Still gleeful, they move to a shabbier place without windows or beds. The ever present sea, remarkably captured by cinematographer Hussein Jafarian seems to overrule any possible despondency. It hardly seems like a usually intense Farhadi film since any possible ominous undertone beneath the group’s frolicking is barely present.
Farhadi then brings about a breathtaking tone shift. The less known about the events that transpire the better. The transformation of the characters from carefree to inculpating, from innocent to guilt-ridden, is nothing less than masterful filmmaking. Ordinary events immediately gain an extraordinary nature. Faced with no easy decisions, the couples portray both individual identity crises and a more tradition-bound group dynamic. As if that weren’t enough, an underlying political symbolism presents itself. One where the past and the emerging present are perhaps irreconcilable foes.