Film

About Elly

Name: About Elly
Genre: Drama
Released: 2009
Cast: Golshifteh Farahani, Shahab Hosseini, Payman Maadi, Merila Zarei, Ahmad Mehranfar

Drama

A kindergarten teacher vanishes during a seaside picnic in northern Iran, and her absence unravels the careful lies a group of friends have constructed around themselves. Asghar Farhadi's investigation into how people reshape truth under pressure is patient, exacting, and quietly devastating—the kind of film that sits with you long after it ends.

TMDb rating

3.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy slow-building social dramas where the tension comes from small lies, awkward silences and people quietly turning on each other, and you like a story that refuses to hand you a clear villain.

Skip it if you want the mystery resolved or a steady stream of plot turns; much of the runtime is people talking in cars and at tables while the central question hangs open.

What it asks of you: Just under two hours of patient observation, with the mood tightening gradually; you need to stay alert to dialogue, since much of the meaning sits in what characters avoid saying.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

A Separation2011

Farhadi's follow-up deepens his mastery of moral complexity: a divorce case that expands into questions about class, faith, and who bears responsibility for harm. Every character is both sympathetic and culpable.

But It's even slower than About Elly, with less plot and more courtroom conversation. If you want resolution, you won't entirely get it.

The Past2013

Farhadi's first French film applies his method to a Parisian apartment where secrets resurface when an estranged husband returns. The setting is different but the exploration of how we live alongside deception is unmistakable.

But It's deliberately enigmatic—Farhadi leaves you inferring rather than explaining. Some find this enriching; others find it frustrating.

Certified Copy2010

Abbas Kiarostami's intellectual game: a woman and a man spend an afternoon together in Italy, and the film teases whether they're strangers meeting or a long-married couple pretending not to be. Playful but piercing.

But It's more conceptual than emotional. The conversation matters more than plot, which won't appeal if you want narrative momentum.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from About Elly

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Game1997

Both films weaponize mystery and misdirection to ask whether people can ever really know each other. The mechanics differ, but the moral question is shared: what are we capable of denying?

A wealthy man is gifted an elaborate psychological game by his estranged brother. What unfolds is a series of manipulations that deconstruct his certainties—about safety, about truth, about who to trust. Like About Elly, it's about how people deceive themselves and others, but Fincher makes it a thriller.

But It's a plot-heavy Hollywood film (not a patient art film), and the ending has divided viewers since release. Some find it clever; others find it gimmicky.

The Salesman2016

Farhadi again, with a couple whose performance of a Chekhov play mirrors a crime committed against them. About how performance and reality collide when trauma enters a marriage.

But Like his other work, it moves through observation rather than action. Long takes, sparse dialogue, and moral ambiguity throughout.

Under the Skin2014

Scarlett Johansson in an unsettling, almost silent film about something predatory moving through ordinary Glasgow. Hypnotic and wrong in ways that linger.

But Plot is minimal; discomfort is maximal. Some scenes are genuinely disturbing, and the film doesn't explain or comfort you about any of it.

Manchester by the Sea2016

A man returns to his hometown to care for his nephew after his brother's death, and the film reveals—slowly, painfully—why he left. Grief as something people carry unevenly.

But The pacing is deliberately unhurried, and there's no catharsis. If you're looking for emotional release, this withholds it.

The Farewell2019

A Chinese-American family decides to hide a terminal diagnosis from their grandmother during a family gathering in China. Funny and heartbreaking, about the gap between what we say and what we know.

But It balances comedy and sadness, which some find tonal whiplash. The cultural specificity is part of the point, which might distance some viewers.

The Hunt2020

Lee Chang-dong's return after a decade away: a village transforms when a man returns home and is accused of a crime he may not have committed. Suspicion and shame metastasize through a community.

But It's bleak and doesn't resolve neatly. The ending will feel unsatisfying if you want justice or clarity.

Winter Light1963

Bergman on faith, doubt, and the silence between people. A pastor struggles with his belief while a woman loves him without being loved back. Austere and essential.

But It's 80 minutes of emotional desolation with no relief. The sparse black-and-white cinematography is beautiful but cold.

In the Mood for Love2000

Both films understand that what people don't say is often more important than what they do. The suppression of feeling becomes the film itself. Both use absence as a presence.

Wong Kar-wai's elegy: two neighbours discover their spouses are having an affair. Instead of confrontation, they mirror the affair by rehearsing conversations in a hotel room, never quite touching. Visual rapture shot through with restraint and longing.

But There is barely any plot. It's almost entirely mood, colour, and implication. If you need narrative momentum, this will feel like watching paint dry.

The Ascent1977

Like About Elly, it traces how ordinary people behave under extreme pressure, and how judgment becomes impossible when everyone is complicit. Both films resist easy moral conclusions.

Larisa Shepitko's only feature before her death: two Soviet partisan monks trek through a Nazi-occupied landscape toward execution, and the film becomes a meditation on faith, weakness, and what we're willing to betray. Black-and-white, uncompromising, almost liturgical.

But It's punishingly bleak, visually stark, and explicitly religious in its concerns. There's no comfort, and no secular framework to rest on if faith isn't yours.