One of the ten “films of my life” (which could be 20, rather than 10).
When this UFO appeared in the cinematographic sky in 1990, European audiences had seen very few movies from the Middle East, among 2 other films directed by Abbas Kiarostami.
Close-Up audaciously mixes fiction and documentary, before it became fashionable.
In a bus, an "ordinary man" is mistaken for another, the famous director Mohsen Makhmalbaf. Being a cinema lover, he doesn't clear the misunderstanding and begins to take advantage of the situation from an upper class family, honoured to invite such a celebrity.
Kiarostami recreated this strange but true story, mixing archive footage and "fiction" played by the true protagonists, especially the family which may or may not have guessed the trickery but prefers to believe in his cinematographic future.
A vertiginous game between fiction and reality, social status and dashed hopes, Iranian institutions and fascination for the cinema. This masterpiece is also the portrait of a country in constant movement.
