Very best movie i ever watch

Too much of everything

The greatest movie ever made..!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

I became a big fan of Mr Farhadi after I watched ''A Separation'' by coincidence on the TV. Then I watched ''The Salesman'', ''The Past'' and ''Beautiful City''. All of them are wonderful movies but this one, ''About Elly'', is probably the most distant from the universal/ global dimensions and messages of Farhadi's movies. I am very curious and interested in the Iranian/ Persian culture and customs and have started to collect information about them, even plan to start to study Farsi and/ or one day to visit Iran. Nevertheless, the story in ''About Elly'' remains for me a bit unrealistic/ non-authentic as Elly is only engaged and having a fiancee for 2 years, so, it might not be extremely difficult for a woman like her to refuse a marriage and to annul the engagement. Even though with some negative consequences for her but bearing in mind that engagement is only a promise for a marriage but still not the marriage itself. And if a marriage is not happening 2 years after the engagement, then it might be admissible simply to go off the engagement.The big goof in this otherwise very strong and emotional movie is what would have happened, if Elly and Ahmad had matched and decided to go together in the usual way? Elly would have to announce the end of the engagement and to accept a new one or directly to marry Ahmad. The power of the promise in the engagement is widely known and applied in Europe at least up to the end of the WWII but it had never been equal to the union of the marriage and, although rarely, could have been annulled in an easier way than a marriage.Therefore, Elly's situation in the story of the movie seems a bit non-authentic and probably not quite understandable for people outside of or unfamiliar to the Iranian culture, which makes the movie weighting less than the other Farhadi's movies.I presume the authors of the movie wanted to raise again the issue of the social situation of women in Iran and their right of independence and free choice of a partner. Probably this is a reason to present Elly's story in this way. However,if Elly had just ''escaped'' from her fiancee with Ahmad, it would have been a worse and less acceptable decision than simply annulling the engagement with an open and honest announcement. I can appreciate the call for more freedom and social rights to women in general and in Iran, but this might not be linked to ''copying'' the ''bad'' from the ''western model'' - dishonesty and attempt for or a true cheating. Interpreting the movie in a broader way, probably this behaviour somehow justified the tragic end of Elly in the story. Faithful to his style, Farhadi leaves the final of the movie a bit open - what will happen with Sepideh - the friend who had invited Elly in the trip and who had lied to her husband and the others about the story; also - who will inform Elly's family about her death - her fiancee or the others, probably the fiancee will prefer to have Elly dishonored (in a response to her betrayal from his point of view and according to the customs in the country)?The fact that this is 58th review of this movie here and the overall rating is above 8 out 10 shows that it makes us think and feel and definitely it is a movie worth a watching.Great anticipation for the new movie of Mr Farhadi - ''Everybody Knows'', just to be released in a few days...

Please feel free to skip reading the text that follows this paragraph even though there are no spoilers... This film is best enjoyed immersing yourself in the film and not knowing anything much apart from the title and the director behind it. The audience gets treated to a fine ensemble of brilliant performers that the 21st-century Iranian cinema has to offer. Farahani, Alidoosti, Zare'i, Azadivar, Hosseini, Haghighi, Maadi, Mehranfar, who all gave top-notch performances in what is very much a character study where the audience is presented the complications that arise when someone introduces a stranger to a close-knit peer group and that someone also hides some info about that person that could get them in trouble, and trouble got to them indeed.They all traveled together as a group for a vacation but there is a misunderstanding regarding the accommodations they have booked, the caretakers thinking they were only staying for one day instead of three, and the owner of the lodging set to use it the day after. They then instead had no choice but to take a dilapidated seaside lodging that they have to clean up themselves. Farhadi inserts in this film his commentary regarding the Iranian society's norms that has been unanimously deemed oppressive to women around the world nowadays, regarding traveling restrictions imposed against unmarried couples and the engaged woman seemingly ALMOST a property of her fiance and have to ask permission for everything she does. The audience sees how the characters react once they realised they have trangressed those rules, the gravity attached to such a situation. And these same characters will also display the same regard and urgency to the things people with Western sensibilities believe in. This is why I believe Farhadi belongs to the group of magnificent cinematic greats these days, juxtaposing these cultural elements to evoke empathy from the non-Iranians. Some of the performers in this movie also figured out in Farhadi's other films: Hosseini and Alidoosti in The Salesman, Maadi, Hosseini and Zare'i in A Separation, and I have yet to see Alidoosti in Fireworks Wednesday and The Beautiful City.One heck of a rollercoaster of emotions, this one. I'm a sucker for these kinds of films. Wish Farhadi continues to make more of these kinds of films.This film is, in every way, an antipodic equivalent to Antonioni's L'Avventura.

It took me a while to get to know the entire cast because it was my first (in a long time ) iranian movie. But once I got introduced with the cast, and their relationship with each other, it became easier to relate with them. The way they have fun, the excitement of the kind of trip they go on, is so much like us. *Fast forwarding...*I really liked the cinematography, especially in the scene where elly is shown for the last time. We have to see her running, having fun with the kite for excruciating few minutes, while something very terrible is happening behind, but we can't see it, because it's not in the frame. Then suddenly we just see the kite flying, and elly is no longer in the frame, we suddenly know that something terrible has happed to her too. *this is one of the best cinematography I have ever seen, and this is the exact part where I realise how talented the director is and I should watch more of his films.* Now what i liked the most :I like how it was a mystery from the very beginning, but then it was more of a psychological mystery rather than a whodunit. For them to find out what has happened to elly, they need to find out _About elly_(the title ) because only after they figure out how Elly is, they can find out what must have happened that day. But to find out _About Elly_ they really need to figure out what kind of people they are. This is extraordinary.And her fiancé left thinking that Elly never liked him, which is probably true but he never accepted this fact until elly was gone, and sepideh told him so, So he had to accept the bitter truth in the end.And as ahmad said, "bitter ending is better than endless bitterness" The movie is all about this quote.

2010:Reading a leaflet from a local art house cinema,I was disappointed to find that I had just missed a screening of an Iran New Wave (INW) Thriller. Looking for the movie on DVD,the only result that turned up was one without English subtitles.2016:Finally getting the chance to see Asghar Farhadi's work in the haunting Drama The Past,I was thrilled to discover that the BBC were to show one of his earlier works,which led to me getting set to at last meet Elly.The plot:Going on a three day holiday,school friends/ couples Sepideh,Amir, Shohreh, Peyman, Nazy and Nazy's husband Manuchehr decide to take their children along on the trip. Aware that the recently divorced Ahmad if flying in from Germany to join them on the break, Sepideh pushes her daughters kindergarten teacher Elly to join them,in the hope that she will woo Ahmad. Arriving at the beach villa,the gang find the place to have no phone reception and to be in the middle of nowhere. Wanting to keep things secret,Elly travels to town and calls her mum to lie about what's taking place.Fearful that Elly could run off early, Sepideh hides her bags. Wanting to spend some time on their own,the gang ask Elly to look after the kids on the beach.Relaxing,the gang is shaken by the scream of a child floating away on the sea,and the discovery that Elly has disappeared into thin air.View on the film:Keeping what awaits them at bay,co-writer/(along with Azad Jafarian) directing auteur Asghar Farhadi & cinematographer Hossein Jafarian give the opening 45 minutes a laid-back attitude,where the camera drifts along to snippets of casual dialogue.Riding the waves of dread with INW tracking shots cracking over the ocean, Farhadi breaks the calm with an atmosphere running on high anxiety,as stylish camera moves sweep the ocean for any sight of Elly. Making a sandcastle for his major visual themes, Farhadi lays the villa bare,subtly matching the bare soul of each guest,caught in draining close-ups and clipped dialogue out of earshot, capturing the emotional,darkly thrilling waves.Initially looking like a nice holiday to the beach, the screenplay by Farhadi and Jafarian chips away at the calm and taps into the pure Noir terror,brilliantly bringing the fracturing state of each relationship to the surface. Finding no sign of Elly on the sea,the writers' strike a chilling mood with an expert deconstruction of Elly's disappearance leading to powerfully raw questions on treating words with a minimal value and the drastic measures people will take to keep a lie in place.Twisting Elly's arm to come along, Golshifteh Farahani gives a divesting performance as Sepideh,whose face is drawn by Farahani in lines of disperse,and a desperation to grasp any sign of hope. Flying in from Germany, Shahab Hosseini gives a magnificent performance as Ahmad,by Hosseini keeping the lingering sting from Ahmad's divorce very real,in a film about Elly.