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Darbareye Elly

Play trailer Darbareye Elly 2009 1h 59m Drama Mystery & Thriller Play Trailer Watchlist
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99% Tomatometer 72 Reviews 84% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
A young teacher disappears before being introduced to a potential suitor in northern Iran.
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Darbareye Elly

Darbareye Elly

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Critics Consensus

About Elly offers viewers performances as powerful as its thought-provoking ideas, and adds another strong entry to Asghar Farhadi's impressive filmography.

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Critics Reviews

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Kenneth Turan Los Angeles Times 07/09/2015
Farhadi has written a first-rate script, enabling intricate plotting to intertwine with well-defined characters, and "About Elly" shows him at ease with the wide variety of situations his writing explores. Go to Full Review
Tom Long Detroit News 06/26/2015
A
By the time the mystery is solved, it hardly seems to matter. What matters is the casual lack of honesty that almost everyone seems to depend on. Go to Full Review
Walter V. Addiego San Francisco Chronicle 05/20/2015
3/4
It's an incisive portrait of a particular society, but it should resonate everywhere. Go to Full Review
Keith Garlington Keith & the Movies 08/19/2022
4.5/5
“About Elly” is a near hypnotic experience whether it’s the fascinating mystery akin to Antonioni’s brilliant “L’Avventura” or the stimulating character study/morality play that puts each character under a microscope. Go to Full Review
Brian Eggert Deep Focus Review 02/20/2022
3.5/4
Farhadi peels back layer after layer of the story to heighten the dramatic stakes, gradually revealing his cultural commentary. Go to Full Review
Patrick Gamble CineVue 02/02/2019
4/5
Farhadi once again reveals himself to be a master of the morality tale, beautiful presenting a series of encounters in which each character is morally and ethically questioned. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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M7AMD A @M7AMD Jul 8 About Elly started off strong, with an engaging story and convincing performances. However, after the drowning incident, the narrative began to lose momentum. The pacing dragged, and I felt the film could have been tighter—perhaps trimmed to around 90 minutes. The acting was believable and added realism to the story, which I appreciated. This was my first time watching an Iranian film. While it wasn’t a bad experience, I wouldn’t consider it among the best either See more Greg K @GregZ 12/01/2024 A delicate demonstration of how basic social bonding (must) depend on lies and deception. See more 05/28/2022 A wonderful dramatic movie. Perfect casting by top Iranian actors, wonderful shots, smart story line and heavily unsettling. This movie constantly makes you incredibly nervous and then gives you a time to rest, which makes it a lovely roller coaster. The interrupting scene of showing Taraneh Alidoosti (Elly) flying kite horrifyingly hints you the drowning of Arash, and it's one of the best scenes in the movie. The casting is superb, especially Goshifteh Farahani (Sepideh) as a desperate person. The only problem I had with this movie was Shaham Hosseini (Ahmad), as he didn't quit look like a person who had just lost his lover, although it is explainable to some extends. In the end, I quit enjoyed the movie and I think it deserves 5 stars. See more Julio A 04/16/2022 Rapaz, que filme que me trouxe diversos sentimentos. Achei que iria virar filme de terror, depois achei que a mulher era terrorista, a agonia da cena da praia.. See more 09/10/2021 I have ambivalent feelings about this film which, I suppose, is a positive. I disliked a lot of the personalities, particularly the "brother"/fiancé, who was a clueless idiot and a jerk. But I quite liked Elly herself, as well as Ahmed, the divorcé ​her friend is intent on setting her up with. In similar fashion, I loved the scenery and landscape near the Caspian Sea, although I would have preferred to see more of the coast rather than just the limited seascape outside the rented villa. <br> The scenes on the road were interesting, as well, limited though they were. The traffic infrastructure looks to be similar to the UAE and other countries of that region which I have visited. <br> By the way, being interested in all things Persian, I take special note of any clues I come across in these films about what life in Iran might be like. From one offhand comment one of the characters made, it sounds like the roadway turns one-way at the end of the weekend when everyone is headed back to Tehran, with people simply taking over the northbound lanes to increase the number of lanes heading south. <br> I guess it's up to people who want to travel north to plan accordingly, knowing that that's just what happens. And it even makes sense in some respects, I suppose, in that it facilitates flow where flow is most needed. But I guess I'd probably say I prefer the way we do things here where we're a little more totalitarian about traffic regulation, on the one hand, and much less extreme about regulating people's personal lives on the other. See more 09/01/2020 First of all, it is a 2009 movie, and not a 2015! I remember it was very impressive when I watched it. How small lies could have an accumulative effect and cause a real catastrophe. Plus, it shows very original nuances of an Iranian average lifestyle. See more Read all reviews
Darbareye Elly

My Rating

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Movie Info

Synopsis A young teacher disappears before being introduced to a potential suitor in northern Iran.
Director
Asghar Farhadi
Producer
Asghar Farhadi, Simaye Mehr, Mahmoud Razavi
Screenwriter
Asghar Farhadi, Azad Jafarian
Genre
Drama, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language
Persian
Release Date (Streaming)
Aug 11, 2015
Box Office (Gross USA)
$106.7K
Runtime
1h 59m
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