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A tightly wound moral drama that turns a simple outing into a devastating study of guilt, class, gender expectations, and the stories people tell to protect themselves. It’s patient, tense, and emotionally exacting, with the kind of escalating unease that lingers after the credits.
Where to watch: Buy
Sat · 1h 59m
Director: Asghar Farhadi
Starring: Golshifteh Farahani, Shahab Hosseini, Payman Maadi
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.
Asghar Farhadi
Golshifteh Farahani, Shahab Hosseini, Payman Maadi
A tightly wound moral drama that turns a simple outing into a devastating study of guilt, class, gender expectations, and the stories people tell to protect themselves. It’s patient, tense, and emotionally exacting, with the kind of escalating unease that lingers after the credits.
About Elly is one of those films that feels almost disarmingly ordinary until it suddenly isn’t. What begins as a cheerful seaside getaway among friends and families gradually reveals a web of social pressure, unspoken rules, and self-protective lies. Asghar Farhadi stages the drama with remarkable control, letting small evasions accumulate into something devastating.
The film’s power comes from how little it needs to do to become suspenseful. A missing person story becomes a moral pressure cooker, and every character’s version of events feels shaped by fear, pride, or obligation. The ensemble is superb, and the film’s realism makes the emotional fallout feel painfully plausible.
It’s not a mystery in the conventional sense so much as a social autopsy. Farhadi is interested in what people conceal from each other, and from themselves, when a crisis exposes the fault lines in friendship, gender roles, and class. The result is tense, humane, and quietly brutal.
Jacob (5★) · 760 likes
"I knew." For years now, About Elly has been the film I recommend most passionately to people. It's one of the best I've ever seen, and even on a fifth viewing, it fascinates me. Many can appreciate the confidence of Farhadi's writing and the absolutely remarkable lead performance from Golshifteh Farahani (and a similarly talented supporting cast), though the plot itself is met with a more mixed reception. I've come to realize just how inherently Iranian this film is, as… more
nick (4★) · 420 likes
About Elly is the prime example of an excellent director extracting all the sensational elements out of a not otherwise sensational story, maximize its entertainment values, and inject his social commentary into it. It's a gripping, extremely patient slow-burn of how normal everyday life can easily spin out of hand over something as trivial as a reckless decision, well, many reckless decisions. It starts with cheerful, sunshine-drenched depiction of an Iranian weekend getaway featuring a group of colleagues and friends,… more
Emily Housel (4.5★) · 306 likes
Golshifteh Farahani is the most beautiful person I've ever seen. A bitter ending is better than an endless bitterness.
cinemasauron (5★) · 256 likes
From one of world cinema's master storytellers & the writer-director of cinematic gems such as A Separation & The Past, About Elly is yet another masterpiece of intricate human drama from Asghar Farhadi which with its extremely gripping, morally challenging & simplest in approach narration turns out to be as riveting a tale of suspense, mystery & realism as the best of the genre can offer. Filmed with steady control by utilising nothing but simple real-life conversations to move its story forward, making full… more
Mobasshir (5★) · 194 likes
Asghar Farhadi is really master of cinema, This movie proves that you don't need a big budget, special effects, killer soundtrack. Nice build up to the climax Terrific and surreal acting, good cinematography and a great storyline.. I really enjoyed watching it and will definitely watch it again.
A masterful companion piece in moral ambiguity, domestic conflict, and the way ordinary disputes spiral into irreversible consequences.
Shares the same interest in private shame, public behavior, and the pressure of social expectation under stress.
Another layered family drama where withheld truths and emotional fallout drive the suspense.
A humane Iranian realist drama that finds tension and meaning in everyday movement and small social interactions.
For viewers drawn to contemplative Iranian cinema that uses minimalism to probe existential and moral questions.
Explores reputation, truth, and the ethics of public judgment in a similarly nuanced, pressure-filled way.
A tense, character-driven moral drama about surveillance, conscience, and the cost of silence.
A devastating study of accusation, social contagion, and how communities turn on one another.
Long-form conversational drama with sharp social observation and simmering interpersonal conflict.
A restrained family drama that builds emotional force through realism and unresolved tension.
A quiet, devastating portrait of grief and the fragility of family life after sudden loss.
For its patient realism, ensemble friction, and the way bureaucracy and human weakness compound crisis.
guilt, deception, social pressure, gender roles, class tension, friendship, moral ambiguity, collective responsibility
Iranian drama, slow-burn suspense, ensemble cast, moral dilemma, realism, social critique, psychological tension, family outing, female perspective, art-house