About Elly (2009)
Year: 2015
Runtime: 1 h 59 m
Language: english
Director: Asghar Farhadi
During a seaside getaway for a group of Tehran's elite, Sepideh tries to set up her daughter’s teacher, Elly, with Ahmad, a recently divorced man living abroad. As the weekend progresses, hidden truths and desires come to light, creating tension and blurring the boundaries of friendship and attraction. The carefully constructed facade of their lives is threatened as secrets emerge, leading to unexpected consequences and a complex web of relationships.
About Elly (2009) (2015) – Spoiler-Free Movie Summary & Plot Overview
Get a spoiler-free look at About Elly (2009) (2015) with a clear plot overview that covers the setting, main characters, and story premise—without revealing key twists or the ending. Perfect for deciding if this film is your next watch.
The film opens on a breezy Caspian shoreline where a tight‑knit circle of Tehran’s well‑to‑do friends gathers for a three‑day escape from the city’s relentless rhythm. The retreat is hosted in an elegant seaside mansion, its polished rooms and sun‑drenched terraces setting a tone that feels both intimate and slightly theatrical, as if the participants are actors in a play they never rehearsed. Beneath the polished surface, the air is thick with unspoken expectations and the quiet pressure of maintaining appearances.
Sepideh has arranged the weekend with a particular purpose in mind: to introduce her daughter’s kindergarten teacher, Elly, to an old friend returning from abroad, Ahmad. Ahmad is a recently divorced man whose life has been reshaped by years abroad, and his presence injects a subtle sense of foreign allure into the otherwise familiar gathering. Sepideh’s husband, Amir, and their thoughtful daughter move through the scene with a gentle, observational calm, while Shohreh arrives with her own family, including a lively son, Arash, whose youthful energy offers a counterpoint to the more measured adult dynamics.
The setting—bright, serene, and seemingly carefree—belies an undercurrent of concealed desires and lingering doubts. Conversations glide between light‑hearted banter and moments that hint at deeper histories, especially as Elly navigates the delicate balance between professional obligations and the personal intrigue Sepideh has so carefully orchestrated. The group’s interactions are threaded with a polite restraint that gradually loosens, allowing glimmers of genuine curiosity, envy, and yearning to surface.
As the days unfold, the coastal backdrop becomes a silent witness to the shifting alliances and quiet confrontations that arise when personal ambitions meet collective expectation. The film’s mood is a measured blend of summer leisure and simmering tension, inviting viewers to linger on the subtle gestures and lingering looks that suggest more is happening beneath the surface than any of the guests are prepared to admit.
Last Updated: August 10, 2025 at 04:42
Explore Movie Threads
Discover curated groups of movies connected by mood, themes, and story style. Browse collections built around emotion, atmosphere, and narrative focus to easily find films that match what you feel like watching right now.
Tense ensemble dramas in idyllic settings like About Elly (2009)
Movies where a relaxing vacation becomes a crucible of hidden tensions and tragedy.Discover movies like About Elly where a group's peaceful vacation shatters under the weight of secrets. This thread gathers similar dramatic thrillers and ensemble stories where an idyllic location becomes a pressure cooker, revealing hidden truths and testing relationships under the sun.
The Weekend Away
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A Bigger Splash
2016
The Rental
2020
The Immaculate Room
2022
Scenic Route
2013
Gone in the Night
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Grand Isle
2019
A Perfect Getaway
2009
Dream Cruise
2007
Summer ’04
2006
The Guest List
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Island in the Sun
1957
The Woman on the Beach
1947
Mystery House
1938
Fear Island
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Narrative Summary
Stories often begin with a group of friends or family arriving at a seemingly perfect holiday location. The initial mood is light, focused on leisure and bonding. A catalyst event—often a disappearance, an accident, or the arrival of an outsider—disrupts the calm, exposing lies, illicit desires, and collective anxieties. The narrative tension builds from the characters' attempts to maintain their social facades while scrambling to contain the escalating crisis.
Why These Movies?
These films are grouped by their powerful use of setting as both a promise and a threat. They share a specific dramatic structure: a deceptive calm followed by a rapid, irreversible descent into chaos. The shared mood is one of claustrophobic tension, moral unease, and the tragic unraveling of carefully constructed lives against a beautiful, indifferent backdrop.
Movies about collective guilt and spiraling lies like About Elly (2009)
Stories where a single event forces a group to weave a web of compounding lies.If you liked the tension in About Elly from the group's cover-up, explore similar movies about collective guilt. These films feature ordinary people making a disastrous choice and then getting trapped in a spiral of lies, leading to heavy moral dilemmas and tragic consequences.
Narrative Summary
The plot is triggered by a pivotal incident—an accident, a death, or a crime—that the group feels compelled to hide, often to protect their reputations or a member. The initial lie seems manageable, but each attempt to shore it up creates new complications, breeding paranoia and mutual suspicion. The narrative drive comes from watching the lie spin out of control, ratcheting up the tension until the truth can no longer be contained.
Why These Movies?
These films are connected by their exploration of a specific moral and narrative pattern: the domino effect of a single lie. They share a high-tone, anxious mood as characters become prisoners of their own fabrication. The experience is defined by a sense of claustrophobia, the heavy weight of guilt, and a bleak, often tragic, examination of how group dynamics can facilitate ethical collapse.
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About Elly (2009) Summary
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About Elly (2009) Timeline
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