About Elly

No flashy twist or wider allegory, just stupendous awesomeness. The truth is that few if any other directors of Farhadi's generation have reached such mastery of their craft. He needs no directorial bells or whistles; the cinematics are a perfectly paced, accurately shot and therefore transparent vessel for the ingenious writing and smashing delivery Farhadi coaxes from his large ensemble cast. The plot faintly echoes Antonioni's masterpiece L'Avventura, but I'll be damned if it isn't better.

"A bitter ending is better than an endless bitterness"

asghar farhadi is quickly becoming my favourite persian director - not only does he capture iranian life and people perfectly, but he tells universal human stories that surpass boundaries set by set by cultural differences and political strife. his characters in this film are multi-faceted and real, and he skillfully nuances the plot to keep the audience guessing until the very last second. absolutely superb!

This poster is fucking hilarious knowing what I now know about the movie. 2017 edit: The poster I was referring to looked like an Iranian DVD cover for Friends.

Some of the convolutions of the second half are just a little contrived, but it is clear that few if any filmmakers are as skilled as Farhadi at fashioning dramas about the complexity of responsibility and the consequences of evading it.