CAIRO - 16 August 2017: The Egyptian Film Critics Association will screen the 2009 Iranian thriller ‘About Elly’ on August 20. The screening will take place in the association's headquarter in downtown Cairo, and it will be followed by an open discussion moderated by the film critic Ahmed Shawqi.
‘About Elly’ is written and directed by the renowned Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, who gained international recognition with two, similarly complex, Best Foreign Language Film Oscar-winning films: ‘A Separation’ in 2012, and ‘The Salesman’ in 2017.
‘About Elly’ won 16 prestigious awards, most notably the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival.
The film starts with a group of friends consisting of three couples travelling from Tehran to spend the weekend at the seaside. One of the wives, Sepideh, invites Elly, her daughter's kindergarten teacher, to join them with the intention of introducing her to their single friend Ahmad.
The next morning, the men go to play volleyball and two women go shopping and Elly - who was nervous from the beginning of the movie - says that she wants to return to Tehran as her mother has been hospitalized. But Sepideh forces her to stay when she secretly stashes her bag. The children go to play at the beach and the third woman asks Elly to watch them.
Suddenly, Sepideh's daughter calls to the playing men to rescue one of the children from drowning in the sea. As they rescue the boy they find out that Elly has disappeared without knowing whether she has drowned or returned to Tehran, and the thrill begins.
The movie raises an ethical question, by scrutinizing how a small white lie in our daily life can lead to unexpectedly catastrophic consequences.
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