About Elly

A group of middle-class friends travel from Tehran to spend the weekend at the seaside. Sepideh invites Elly, who is her daughter's teacher, to travel with the three families in order to introduce her to their recently divorced friend Ahmad, now living in Germany. The next morning, the two women go shopping in the town and Elly says that she has to return to Tehran because her mother has been recently submitted to hospital for heart surgery, but Sepideh asks her to stay and hides her luggage. The children are playing in the sea and one mother asks Elly to watch them. Out of the blue, Sepideh's daughter calls to some men playing volleyball to rescue one of the children from the water. After rescuing the little boy they seek out Elly, questioning whether she has drowned or returned to Tehran. What has happened to Elly?

Writer/director Asghar Farhadi offers this revealing look at the Iranian middle class by examining how one simple lie can open up a Pandora's box of problems. In the wake of his failed marriage in Germany, Ahmad (Shahab Hosseini) returns to Tehran. With the holidays approaching, Ahmad's friend Sepideh (Golshifteh Farahani) organizes a weekend getaway to the Caspian Sea with a group of old college friends. But one member of the group sticks out like a sore thumb: she's a pretty kindergarten teacher named Elly (Taraneh Alidousti), and Sepideh thought she would be a perfect match for Ahmad. The following day, however, Elly vanishes without a trace, sparking a frantic search that sours the festivities, and revealing the casual deceits that are shared amongst friends.

After living in Germany for many years, Ahmad returns to Iran. His friend Sepideh organizes a trip with him and all his friends to spend three days by the shores of the Caspian Sea. Without warning the group, she invites a stranger, Elly, her daughter’s teacher from the care center. Ahmad, having had an unhappy marriage with a German woman, wants to be with an Iranian woman. On the second day, when everything seems to be going well, something strange happens and Elly disappears. The joyful and pleasant atmosphere fades away as they try to discover the reason for the bizarre disappearance. Elly’s family is contacted but none of them know of her whereabouts. The friends start panicking and begin to blame each other for Elly’s disappearance.

Vocalist-composer Elly Hoyt’s third album The Composers’ Voice: Celebrating Australian Women Composers, out through Earshift Music, is a commissioning project that presents her alongside some of Melbourne’s best jazz artists. The Composers’ Voice presents a diverse set of compositions from celebrated Australian composers including Andrea Keller, Gian Slater, Georgia Weber, Louise Denson, Sonja Horbelt, Shannon Barnett, Tamara Murphy and Hoyt herself. The music is brought to life by an all-star band including pianist Andrea Keller, trumpeter Mat Jodrell, saxophonist Julien Wilson, trombonist James Macaulay, bassist Sam Anning and drummer James McLean.