“About Elly” by Asghar Farahdi

CAST

Golshifteh Farahani…………………………Sepideh
Taraneh Alidousti……………………………Elly
Shahab Hosseini………………………………Ahmad
Merila Zarei………………………………………Shohreh
Mani Haghighi.…………………………………Amir
Peyman Moadi………………………………….Peyman
Rana Azadivar …………………………………Nazy
Ahmad Mehranfar……………………….….Manuchehr
And
Saber Abar………………………………………Alireza

CREW

Director : Asghar Farhadi

Screenplay : Asghar Farhadi
Director of Photography : Hossein Jafarian
Editing : Hayedeh Safiyari

Music: “Song for Eli”

Composed & Performed by :Andrea Bauer

Sound Recorder : Hassan Zahedi

Sound Mixer : Mohammad-Reza Delpak
Set Designer / Decors : Asghar Farhadi
Costume designer : Asghar Farhadi
Make-Up : Mehrdad Mirkiani

Producers : Asghar Farhadi & Mahmoud Razavi

Production Company : Simaye Mehr

Shooting format : 35mm

Screening format : 35mm
Sound : : SR
Ratio : 1.1:85
Original language : Persian
Subtitled in : English or French or German

Fiction – colour – 118 min – 2009 - Iran.

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Synopsis:
After many years living in Germany, Ahmad is on a flying visit to Iran. His old university
friends decide to organise three days together on the banks of the Caspian Sea.
One of the women in the group, the joyful Sepideh, has taken the planning in hand. Unbeknown
to her colleagues she has invited Elly, her daughter’s nursery school teacher.
Ahmad, having just disentangled himself from an unhappy German marriage, would like to settle
down with an Iranian woman. Knowing this the friends gradually realise why Sepideh has invited
Elly. Their attention turns to her and each one in turn lauds her qualities.
On the second day, while everything seems to be going well, an incident occurs which leads to
Elly’s disappearance. The joyful atmosphere evaporates and harmony breaks down as the friends
try to understand how and why she disappeared.
Elly’s family is contacted, but as they have no news of her, panic sets in. The friends start
becoming judgemental and pick over the previous day’s conversations and Elly’s family phone
calls, trying to find fault. Finally Sepideh is blamed for having invited Elly and thus ruining their
holiday.
The group’s opinions of Elly veer from those of the first day, until at last the truth is out.

Director’s statement

Cinema audiences have grown more mature and directors can no longer be content with
force feeding them a set of preconceived ideas. Rather than asserting a world vision, a film
must open a space in which the public can involve themselves in a personal reflection, and
evolve from consumers to independent thinkers. Cinema has no other choice but to take up
this approach, as I did when I made ‘About Elly’.

Biography:
Asghar Farhadi was born in Isfahan, Iran in 1972. Whilst at school he became interested in
writing, drama and the cinema, took courses at the Iranian Young Cinema Society and
started his career as a filmmaker by making super 8mm and 16mm films.
He graduated with a Master's Degree in Film Direction from Tehran University in 1998.
During his studies, he not only wrote and directed student plays, but also wrote plays for
national radio and directed for television with such shows as the hit series Tale of a City.
In 2001, Farhadi wrote the screenplay for Ebrahim Hatamikia's box-office and critical success
Low heights.
His directorial debut was with 2003's Dancing in the Dust. This film went on to participate in
the Moscow Film Festival, where it won both the Best Leading Actor and Film Critics awards.
Farhadi made his second feature film, Beautiful City, in 2004 which won the Best feature film
award at the Warsaw Film Festival 2004, the India International Film Festival and Moscow's
Faces of Love Film Festival.
“Chahar shanbeh souri / Fireworks Wednesday”, his third feature, award winner at the
Locarno International Film Festival 2006, has also been successful in other international
festivals. The film has been released in both Europe and the USA.

2009's “Darbareh Elly /About Elly” is his fourth feature film.

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Filmography:

Short Films

1988 : Janali : Fiction - 20 min - Iran.

1989 : Radio : Fiction - 15 min - Iran.
1990 : Donyaye divarha / The World of Walls / Le monde des murs : Fiction -
10 min - Iran.
1991 : Majerahaye Filmsaz/ The adventures of Mr Filmmaker / Les aventures d’un metteur
en scène : Fiction - 18 min - Iran.
1992 : Cheshm-ha / The Eyes / Les yeux : Documentary - 15 min - Iran.
1998 : Sim / The Wire / Le Fil : Fiction - 20 min - Iran.

Feature Films

2003 : Raghss dar ghobar / DANCING IN THE DUST / Danse dans la poussière :
Fiction - 35mm – Colour - 105 min - Iran.

2004 : Shahr-e Ziba / BEAUTIFUL CITY / Belle Ville : Fiction - 35mm – Colour –
102 min - Iran.

2006 : Chahar shanbeh souri / Fireworks Wednesday / La Fête du Feu: Fiction – 35mm –
colour – 104 min – Iran.

2009: Darbareye Elly / About Elly: Fiction – 35mm – colour -118min – Iran

2011 : Jodaeiye Nader az Simin / Nader and Simin, A Separation: Fiction - 35mm - Colour -
123 min - Iran

In Australia/NZ, contact Hi Gloss Entertainment

simon@higlossentertainment.com.au

phone : 0438 563 783

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