About Elly

Dir: Asghar Farhadi

2009

*****

What starts out as a middle-class Big Chill-esque look at old friendships and the different levels of relationships, suddenly becomes an edge of your seat thriller that refuses to let up. Director Asghar Farhadi is now famous for his intense dramas, many involving a kind of redemption, relationships and divorce in Iran but for me this is his most deceptive and exciting film. It makes you look one way, so that you don’t see it coming from the opposite direction. The film begins as we see a group of middle-class friends, former classmates at the law faculty of the university, as they travel to the Caspian Sea for a three-day break. They consist of Sepideh, her husband Amir and their young daughter; Shohreh, her husband Peymān and their two children, including their son Arash and Nāzy and her husband Manuchehr. Sepideh, who planned the trip, brings along her daughter's kindergarten teacher, Elly, in order to introduce her to Ahmad, a divorced friend visiting from Germany. When they arrive they discover that there has been a mistake in the booking and their villa is not ready. At the villa that Sepideh has booked the woman in charge tells them the owners will return the next day and suggests that they stay instead in a deserted beach-front villa next door. During making arrangements Sepideh lies to the old woman about the relationship between Elly and Ahmad and says they're married and on their honeymoon. The group finally decide after much debate to stay at the dilapidated villa and proceed to clean it up for their overnight stay. Elly is a little shy, but begins to feel interested in Ahmad, who seems to have developed an attraction for her. She calls her mother and lies to her, saying that she's with her co-workers at a sea-side resort and that she expects to go back to Tehran the following day, as planned. Sepideh, however, doesn't want her to leave and hides her luggage. While some still clean the villa and others enjoy themselves playing volley ball, one of the mothers asks Elly to watch the children who are playing at the seaside. Everything changes when one of the children calls out to the men who are all playing at the side of the house. As they rush to the call they find Arash floating in the sea. Arash is saved and resuscitated in a particularly intense and unexpected scene. Once things are settled, the group wonder where Elly is an are angry that she has left the children unattended, that is, until they realise that Elly might have drowned herself in trying to save Arash. The children are confused and unsure whether Elly went in the sea or not, so the group are divided; Elly either abandoned their children or she is dead. The police are called, while the group continues to search for Elly. The group starts to blame each other for the series of events leading up to her disappearance and her presence on the trip. It also becomes clear that none of them really know who Elly is and their story becomes more and more suspicious to the police. Sepideh had been lying and knows Elly is engaged to a man named Alireza. Since Elly is reluctant to marry Alireza, Sepideh insisted she comes on the trip to meet Ahmad. Elly initially refused the invitation, as an engaged woman but, following pressure from Sepideh, eventually accepted without telling anyone where she was really going. Alireza is contacted under false information and arrives later that day. Suspecting something is up he attacks Ahmad, then asks Sepideh whether Elly had refused her invitation to go on holiday. Sepideh wants to protect the honour of Elly and tells the truth but, following pressure from the others who feel threatened by Alireza, lies and tells him that Elly accepted the invitation without hesitation. The conclusion challenges each character in a different way and effects the relationships between partners and old friends to a devastating degree. The first half of the film is somewhat slow and then goes from 0 to 60. It asks a few moral questions and looks at some very average issues to do with marriage, parenthood and friendship but turning into a a gripping thriller that tests each one of those issues to the extreme. It also shows the effects a simple lie can have on a situation, something that can seem quite innocent at first, can lead to a series of chaos and disaster. It is everything you expect from a Asghar Farhadi drama, with an huge helping of Alfred Hitchcock thrown in. The story itself is a huge onion of mystery, with a devastating conclusion, but the lies and mysteries themselves are simple, ordinary and are by and large usually of no consequence. To make this mountain out of a mole hill is quite spectacular and proves how clever a writer/story teller Farhadi is. The film is so intense and full of suspense, I was exhausted by the end of it. The sign of a great thriller, certainly one of the best I’ve seen in recent years.