Asghar Farhadi’s About Elly (2009) is a claustrophobic masterpiece that depicts the complexities of social relations and the pains people will go to protect themselves, especially in light of potentially punishing circumstances.
The film tells the story of a group of friends from Tehran who take a trip to the Caspian Sea for a weekend getaway. Although most of the characters know each other well, Ahmad (Shahab Hosseini) is visiting from Germany, and he is being set up with Elly (Taraneh Alidoosti) who is not otherwise part of the group of friends. She is the teacher of Sepideh (Goldshifteh Farahani) and Mani’s (Mani Haghighi) daughter. From the outset, Elly insists that she return home after only one night, while Sepideh returns the insistence, saying that she must stay–and doing everything she can to ensure it.
While the first act of the story runs slowly–even to the point of being boring–the conclusion of the first act sees the disappearance of Elly, and the suspense within the film rapidly crescendos to painful levels by the end of the third act. I found myself yelling at the television, “Are you joking me? This is insane!”
Thematically, Farhadi’s film is very much focused on people. In fact, there are few shots that depict the landscape. I found myself wondering about the place our protagonists are staying, but we are given none of the satisfaction of seeing it. Instead, we attend to two hours of close-ups that highlight human social relations. Such filmmaking works in the film’s favor: the environment is not a character here, and abstract philosophical ideas are not characters either.
The primary thematic touch-points are questions about honor, lying, and gender relations. Rather than these themes being some abstract concept “out there” in the larger world, they are embodied through the group of friends.
Goldshifteh Farahani, in particular, offered an immaculate performance. Her character develops over the course of the film into the physical incarnation of justice, only to be deflated in like a rubber balloon. Even so, we don’t come to despise her: she is doing what she believes is right given the social norms she exists in. She is the sole character to relentlessly preserve Elly’s honor; until, of course, her own life is placed at risk.
Elly’s character, although we see little of her, acts as a foil to the group of friends. She does not waiver from living in an honorable, value-laden way. Although she is caught between her obligations to her family (and fiancé) and her agreement to join Sepideh on the trip, she sacrifices her life trying to save Arash, who almost drowns. Throughout the course of the film, we come to resent her: we, as viewers, believe that she shirked her responsibility of watching the children, leading to Arash’s near-demise. The penultimate scene forces us to compare Elly with the other friends.
The men, on the other hand, are nearly universally reprehensible. They give all responsibility to the women: we see them smoking shisha while the women do the dishes, they play volleyball while the women take care of the children, and–most tragically–they blame the women when everything goes wrong. No man takes responsibility, while we frequently hear the women say, “If only I had done things differently.” Amir–who is jealous of Sepideh, and even physically abusive–becomes toxic masculinity in human form. Elly’s fiancé, on the other hand, upholds Iran’s codes of honor.
Despite this being an Iranian film, it is not really about Iran at all. The film offers a universal message about the lengths we will go to protect ourselves and the oppression that comes with patriarchy. I am not certain that the movie would have been significantly different had it taken place in the United States or France instead of Iran.
Farhadi’s About Elly may well be one of the greatest works of social realism every made, and I would urge all readers to devote two hours for a viewing without any distractions.
