
This fiction-documentary hybrid uses a sensational real-life event—the arrest of a young man on charges that he fraudulently impersonated the well-known filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf—as the basis for a stunning, multilayered investigation into movies, identity, artistic creation, and existence, in which the real people from the case play themselves.
Directed by Abbas Kiarostami, Close-Up leans on a strong ensemble — Hossain Sabzian, Monoochehr Ahankhah, Mahrokh Ahankhah — to carry a story that balances spectacle with character.
The film landed with audiences for its craft and performances, and remains one of the most talked-about crime titles of 1990.
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Irreverent city engineer Behzad comes to a rural Kurdish village in Iran to keep vigil for a dying relative. In the meanwhile the film follows his efforts to fit in with the local community and how he changes his own attitudes as a result.
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