Hossain Sabzian

Close Up Hossain Sabzian

With his use of non-actors and his loose use of documentary rules, Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami's (TASTE OF CHERRY) films can often be characterized by asking whether what the viewer is seeing is reality or fiction. The film which perhaps most exemplifies this is CLOSE-UP, ostensibly a documentary about an impostor of another Iranian director, Mohsen Makhmalbaf (GABBEH; ONCE UPON A TIME, CINEMA). Kiarostami tells the story by asking questions from off-screen to those involved in the legal case, then having the participants play themselves in a re-enactment of the events which actually occurred. A masterwork, considered by many to be Kiarostami's best.