About Elly (2009)

The mysterious disappearance of a kindergarten teacher during a picnic in the north of Iran is followed by a series of misadventures for her fellow travelers.

Director:

Asghar Farhadi

Writers:

Asghar Farhadi (screenplay), Azad Jafarian (story)

Stars:

Golshifteh Farahani, Shahab Hosseini, Taraneh Alidoosti

16 wins & 13 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Golshifteh Farahani	...	Sepideh
Shahab Hosseini	...	Ahmad
Taraneh Alidoosti	...	Elly
Merila Zare'i	...	Shohreh
Mani Haghighi	...	Amir
Payman Maadi	...	Peyman (as Peyman Moaadi)
Ra'na Azadivar	...	Naazi
Ahmad Mehranfar	...	Manoochehr
Saber Abar	...	Alireza (as Saber Abbar)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mohammad Tiregar

Storyline

A group of middle-class friends travel from Tehran to spend the weekend at the seaside. Sepideh invites Elly, who is her daughter's teacher, to travel with the three families in order to introduce her to their recently divorced friend Ahmad, now living in Germany. The next morning, the two women go shopping in the town and Elly says that she has to return to Tehran because her mother has been recently submitted to hospital for heart surgery, but Sepideh asks her to stay and hides her luggage. The children are playing in the sea and one mother asks Elly to watch them. Out of the blue, Sepideh's daughter calls to some men playing volleyball to rescue one of the children from the water. After rescuing the little boy they seek out Elly, questioning whether she has drowned or returned to Tehran. What has happened to Elly?

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Plot Keywords:

two word title | friend | volleyball | iran | middle class | 

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Details

Official Sites:

sourehcinema

Country:

Iran France

Language:

Persian German

Release Date:

6 June 2009 (Iran)

Also Known As:

About Elly

Filming Locations:

Tonekabon, Mazandaran, Iran

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$13,180, 12 April 2015

Gross USA:

$470,760

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$878,642

Company Credits

Production Co:

Dreamlab

Technical Specs

Runtime:

119 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Selected by Indiewire critics as one of the top 10 foreign language movies of 2015.

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Goofs

When they decide to stay in the villa and start to clean it, Ahmad calls the boy (Omid) by name asking him about where he can find a vacuum cleaner. Seconds later, he asks the boy about his name.

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Quotes

Sepideh: Now, what does he think about Elly?

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Connections

References The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

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Soundtracks

Song For Eli
Written by Andrea Bauer

User Reviews

a non forgettable piece of work

You can't breathe, you can not even shout, you can not cry, you'll be just stay fascinated till the end and the final music is just as fantastic as the whole movie itself; The roles are played by some of the best actors and actresses of Iran, who actually LIVE the roles and you just get engaged with everything that's going on there as if you are one of them; I loved it so much; Thanks to Asghar Farhadi for always making us such good movies; I do recommend everyone to see this if the haven't yet; I'm gonna see it again for sure....... I really love the scene where the sound of Eli gets mixed with the cruel sound of Sea which really makes you nervous; gives some notices about the upcoming events;