Laura returns from Buenos Aires to her Spanish hometown for her sister's wedding. During the party, her daughter disappears, and the kidnappers demand a ransom. Watch how Farhadi turns a rescue plot into a story about what a family has never said.
Everybody Knows is a 2018 drama, thriller and mystery film directed by Asghar Farhadi. This breakdown covers 5 techniques (2 narrative, 2 psychology and 1 cinematography), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Eddington uses several of the same techniques.
Keeping the camera away from a key event and giving conflicting accounts of it equal weight. You can't work out what really happened, and that uncertainty is the experience of the film.
How this film uses it
The film never shows the kidnapping. Irene is there at the party and then she is gone. The family guess, accuse and argue, and each version of events sounds plausible. You stay as uncertain as they are until the end.
Where to see it
The wedding party. Irene disappears during the celebration, and a text message arrives demanding money.
Driving drama from what one person hides from or fails to do for another. Loyalty goes unrewarded and silence works like betrayal.
How this film uses it
The drama is driven by secrets people keep from each other. Laura tells her old friend Paco that he is Irene's father, and other old grievances come out in the same hours. Keeping quiet turns out to cost as much as lying.
Where to see it
Laura's confession. Laura tells Paco that he is Irene's biological father, and his wife Bea doubts the story.
Placing people in a pressured situation where politeness and rules fall apart. The film watches panic or fear turn ordinary people into something cruder, sometimes for laughs.
How this film uses it
The family tries to stay polite while the pressure rises. Then suspicions spread from one person to another, and old resentments and money worries come out. A happy wedding becomes a scene of accusation.
Where to see it
The ransom scramble. The family keeps the police out and tries to raise the money, and suspicion moves from person to person.
Treating a small town as more than a setting. Its buildings, lighting and relationships show the community's values and limits, which shape what the characters can do and what gets destroyed.
How this film uses it
In a small village, everyone knows the history of everyone else. That knowledge is the film's title. The town remembers who owned the land, who loved whom and who was left behind, and the plot follows those memories.
Where to see it
The village. The family gathers in Laura's hometown near Madrid, where old relationships and grudges are known to everyone.
Making money or one necessary possession the force that moves the plot, so every choice is shaped by what characters can afford or keep.
How this film uses it
The ransom sets a clock and a price. The family must find 300,000 euros, and in doing so they have to decide who is willing to pay and what they are owed. The money exposes the relationships beneath the surface.
Where to see it
The ransom. Paco brings the ransom money, and Irene is returned only after the money disappears.
Questions
Everybody Knows: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does Everybody Knows use?
CineCode breaks down 5 techniques in Everybody Knows (2018): Audience Truth Withholding, Betrayal and Withheld Truth, Social Order Breakdown, Small Town as Moral Geography and Money as Plot Driver.
Who directed Everybody Knows?
Asghar Farhadi directed Everybody Knows, released in 2018. CineCode also covers A Separation (2011).
What films are similar to Everybody Knows?
Films that share techniques with Everybody Knows include Eddington (2025), Dark Waters (2019), It's a Wonderful Life (1946), Bicycle Thieves (1948).
