THE Goulburn Film Group's October movie is the intriguing and suspenseful Iranian drama About Elly from the Oscar winning (A Separation) Iranian director Asghar Farhadi.
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A group of friends - affluent professionals and their children from Tehran - leave for a long weekend on the Caspian Sea.
The trip to the seaside resort is an impulsive decision consequently there is some confusion as to the accommodation. The group is forced to take anything that is vacant. The shambolic nature of the rustic villa is prescient of what is to eventuate.
As well, one of the group, the vivacious Sepideh (Golshifteh Farahani) has invited someone of whom they know very little about: a young, attractive woman called Elly (Taraneh Alidoosti), who is their children's kindergarten teacher.
The reason why Elly is invited is soon made apparent. She’s being mischievously set-up with Ahmada, a single friend in the group who has recently divorced. It seems such an innocent and harmless act of matchmaking. Initially, Elly and Ahmada play along with the situation and there is raucous approval among the group.
What seems simple on the surface rarely is in a Farhadi film. Panic ensues when one of the children is almost swept out to sea. Afterwards, Elly goes mysteriously missing. Did she drown in her attempts to save the child? Or did she run away from the group? If so, what or who was she afraid of?
As Elly's disappearance defies solving, tensions rise until a crisis point is triggered. Eventually cracks start to emerge between the family friends. Secrets are gradually exposed to create a web of deception.
As the mystery deepens and as the drama heightens, Farhadi zooms in on the issues inherent in truth, lies, and the places in between. What is the truth About Elly? Was Sepideh's - the gregarious young mother and matchmaker - intention as harmless as it initially seemed?
Elly's disappearance acts as a microscope through which the dynamics of this tightly-knit group is minutely examined. What is eventually brought into sharp focus is the falsehoods, mistrust and hostility among the friends.
At one level About Elly is a tense psychological thriller which gradually unfolds to reveal pieces of the puzzle. At a deeper level Farhadi illuminates the pervasive religious and class tensions inside Iran.
In this sense About Elly is a social allegory encompassing religious hypocrisy and class conflict. It also presents an intriguing portrait of contemporary Iran one which the Western media often overlooks or inaccurately portrays.
It screens on Sunday October 30 at 4.40 pm.
