About Elly Movie Review by Sputnik

After years abroad, Ahmad returns to his native Iran to recover from his recent divorce, where he joins some old pals on a trip to the Caspian Sea. His friend also invites Elly, a young teacher who may be the cure for Ahmad’s broken heart.

Its a Iranian movie from Asghar Farhadi, the director of the Oscar winning A Separation. This came out before A Separation but its similar to it in that the whole movie revolves around a single tragic incident and the aftermath. This one has more characters but this also deals with lies and half truths.

Its very engrossing for a major part of it but it is also a bit too long at close to 2 hrs and feels a little stretched at the end. Hated the character (Arash’s mother) and found Sepideh’s character’s behavior infuriating.

Golshifteh Farahani was excellent as Sepideh. Shahab Hosseini was good as Ahmed. Taraneh Alidoosti looked pretty as Elly. Peyman Moaadi was very good. The rest of the cast was good too.

There is a scene early on in the movie where Elly talks to her mother on the phone. It seemed like a casual scene. But what she says to her mother assumes so much importance later on. Elly is judged and misunderstood later on because of the one line that she says to her mother.

I don’t think there is any other director who makes movies like Asghar Farhadi in which a seemingly innocuous line assumes so much significance later on. You have to listen to each line and watch each character’s behavior and expressions closely coz they can assume so much significance later on. His characters are all imperfect – neither totally positive or totally negative. And the ones who cause problems are the ones who are either very idealistic or who have the best intentions.

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