Close-Up

Original title: Nema-ye nazdik

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Abolfazl Ahankhah, Mehrdad Ahankhah, Hossain Farazmand, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, and Hossain Sabzian in Close-Up (1990)

The true story of Hossain Sabzian, a cinephile who impersonated the director Mohsen Makhmalbaf to convince a family they would star in his so-called new film.The true story of Hossain Sabzian, a cinephile who impersonated the director Mohsen Makhmalbaf to convince a family they would star in his so-called new film.The true story of Hossain Sabzian, a cinephile who impersonated the director Mohsen Makhmalbaf to convince a family they would star in his so-called new film.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

8.2/10

25K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 2 wins & 2 nominations total

User reviews69

Featured review

This is a masterpiece, one of the most original films ever made

Close-up tells the true story of a man arrested for impersonating Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf. The film is a joy made up of mostly real footage of the trial and interviews with all involved, and also re-enactments of real events by the actual people involved. The film comes across as a portrait of a film-lover, as Hossain Sabzian defends his reasons for his impersonation in court with Kiarostami as the judge (literally) and the audience as jury, praying for a light sentence for Sabzian. Sabzian comes across as a screen legend, his innocence draws us to identify with him, a sweet man with a passion for films and family. Close-up literally bursts with originality, breaking the line between documentary and fiction with fantastic innovation, whilst still remaining light-hearted, humorous and easy viewing for anyone.

GregSinora
Feb 2, 2005
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À propos d'Elly

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
In the final scene outside the jail when Sabzian is surprised and touched to meet the real director he had been impersonating, Mohsan Makhmalbaf, we don't hear most of their talk because (we're told) the sound equipment was faulty. In reality, Kiarostami just didn't want to leave the dialogue in, because it didn't come off well: Sabzi was genuinely moved to meet his idol and spoke from his heart, but Makhmalbaf was just repeating scripted lines, so the dialogue didn't work.

Goofs
When Sabzian and Makhmalbaf meet, there is a bundle in Sabzian's hand. He gets on the motorbike with the bundle in his hand. Later on, during their ride on the motorbike, the bundle is not there any more.