About Elly

Last night I went to see this rather good Iranian film.

Incidentally, with that little phrase I am excited to possibly announce the beginning of a new era of good international cinema, which should usher out the strange urges I've had to see American toss recently.

I don't think I would have plumped for it had I not seen the trailer a coupe of weeks earlier, and observed that it looked like a pretty interesting thriller. I've been telling myself to check out some Iranian cinema for a while, and this seemed like a good starting point.

The below review may contain some plot spoilers, although nothing will be revealed that you can't already gauge from the trailer, and I won't reveal the end, of course.

At the time of writing, no UK distributor has picked it up, so any UK readers may well forget anything I reveal by the time it comes out on DVD.

So the story begins with a large group of couples (4, I think), plus some small children, arriving at a remote beach cottage where they plan to spend the weekend. Aside from the couples, there are 2 single people there - the rather dishy Ahmad, and Elly, the tutor of key character Sepideh's children. It turns out that following Ahmad's divorce, Sepideh is keen to set them up.

Everything is going well until the following day Elly confirms that she was only able to stay one night and needs to leave. But Sepideh implores her to stay. Before Elly's proposed departure, she is asked to keep an eye on the children for a little while. Suddenly one child runs over to the parents, very distressed, and shouting her brother's name. He is in the sea and in danger. Thus ensues a mad dash to rescue him. As soon as they have pulled him out of the water they realise that Elly was supposed to be watching the children, and she too is missing. The rest of the film revolves around trying to figure out what happened to Elly - is she in the water or could she have left without telling anyone? A web of intrigue ensues.

It's a fairly classic thriller narrative but I really enjoyed watching it play out in unfamiliar territory. I've never really seen Iran on screen, except in the news. It interested me to see that while some features were unexpectedly western (our key characters are all very pleasing to the eye), and others more predictably Iranian, they didn't shy away from some uncomfortable situations and, dare I say it, stereotypes - for example, two of the women are at different points humiliated by their husbands (indeed, the likeable Sepideh is physically attacked) in front of their friends. I might have expected that a film with international ambitions would attempt to dispel this myth about a husband's dominance over his wife in Iran. Furthermore, Sepideh's abusive husband looks considerably older than her which raises some eyebrows about how on earth she may have ended up with him.

All in all I really enjoyed the film - for the first time in a while I didn't feel the 2 hours drag - and I'm recommending it. A deserved winner of the Silver Bear at Berlin this year - I hope it can translate festival success into a healthy international audience (hmm).