by Rod Jones
The Oklahoma City University Film Institute's Series will continue its 34th year at 2 p.m. Feb. 21 with Asghar Farhadi's "About Elly" in the Kerr McGee Auditorium of Meinders School of Business. The school is located at N.W. 27th Street and McKinley Avenue.
Admission to all films in the series is free. The series is supported in part by the Thatcher Hoffman Smith Endowment Fund and endowments through OCU and the Oklahoma City Community Foundation.
Farhadi, director of acclaimed Oscar winner “A Separation” and “The Past,” presents another film from Iran. “About Elly” follows a gripping mystery set among a group of old friends on a holiday retreat. The former college pals reunite for a weekend outing by the Caspian Sea. But seemingly trivial lies, which start accumulating from the moment the group arrives at the seashore, suddenly swing around and come back full force when one afternoon one of them suddenly vanishes. The mysterious disappearance sets in motion a series of deceptions and revelations that threaten to shatter everything they hold dear.
NPR called it “a thriller perched right on the fault line between modern thinking and Islamic tradition.”
The theme of this year’s season is based on Viktor Frankl’s classic book “Man’s Search for Meaning.” Harbour Winn, director of the series, said the theme is intended to help participants come to understand the purpose of suffering.
“The films in this series stress the importance of an individual’s attitude to existence,” Winn said. “Even when life seems restricted by external forces, we can choose the attitude with which we live and make meaning, to find value.”
A discussion session follows each film screening for those who wish to participate.
The final film in the series will be March 6 with Andrey Zvyagintsev’s “Leviathan.”
For more information about the series, call 405-208-5472 or visit okcu.edu/film-lit.
