Molly Pennington, a PhD in Critical and Cultural Studies from the University of Pittsburgh, wrote that two Iranian movies "A Separation" and "About Elly" both by Farhadi are among the best 100 international movies chosen by Stacker.
About Elly (2009) is about a group of married friends with young children who spend a weekend on the shores of the Caspian Sea, bringing along the single Elly (Taraneh Alidoosti) to set her up with a divorcee. These plans go awry after an accident where Elly disappears and an unexpected guest shows up. Director Asghar Farhadi also wrote this tense social drama about middle-class Iranians bound up in moral quandaries.
About Elly received the Golden Bear, the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival and 10 awards at 27th Fajr Film Festival in Tehran. It also represented Iran in 82nd Oscars.
A Separation (2011) was the first Iranian film to win the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. It is one of the great films about divorce. Farhadi’s drama opens with the separating couple (Leila Hatami and Payman Maadi) directly addressing both the camera and a family court judge. The audience is pulled into a tense and intimate world where it's impossible to choose sides in the complicated dispute that unfolds with the couple’s young daughter, who is caught in the middle.
As well as the Oscars prize, A Separation won the Silver Bear for best actor and actress.
9417**2050
Follow us on Twitter @IrnaEnglish