A reporter follows police officers in a car driving to the house of the Ahankhah family, where they arrest a certain Hossain Sabzian, who falsely claimed he is the famous director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, gained trust of the family, borrowed 1,900 tomans from them for a taxi, and pretended he is rehearsing scenes for his next film with their sons. At the trial, Sabzian admits he is not the director, but during a bus drive, a woman asked about the book he was reading, and he claimed he wrote it because he is Makhmalbaf. Sabzian expresses remorse and says he did not intend any burglary when inspecting the house of the Ahankhah family. The plaintiffs ultimately decide to forgive Sabzian at the trial. Upon his release, Sabzian meets the real Makhmalbaf, drives with him on a motorcycle with a flower to the Ahankhah house, and apologizes once again.
The director Abbas Kiarostami crafted this peculiar, almost experimental film which defies genres, revolving around imposter Hossain Sabzian who falsely posed as film director Mohsen Makhmalbaf: one half of the film is a documentary, where he filmed the actual trial where the judge and plaintiffs discuss with Sabzian; the other half is the fictional re-enacting of part of this incident, with Sabzian and the Ahankhah family playing themselves (!) while acting these scenes out. This hybrid of docufiction and documentary is at times fascinating, though it does tend to become overstretched, exhausting itself with too much screentime given to the actual trial, with ponderous monologues, which just go on and on, instead of showing more details from this case. "Close-Up" is thus a bit uneven, overfocusing on the trial, while under-focusing on the events. The main question it poses is: why did Sabzian do this? His monologue during the trial sums it up: "They gave me their attention and respect." - "Who did?" - "The family. They did whatever I wanted. If I'd asked them to move a heavy dresser, they would have. If I'd asked them to cut down a tree, they would have. Before, no one would ever have obeyed me like that, because I am just a poor man. But because I pretended to be this famous person, they would do whatever I said". Sabzian therefore played this charade to gain some significance and importance which he lacked in his ordinary life where nobody noticed him before, acting like "chameleon" protagonists from the movies "Catch Me If You Can" and "Zelig". Directed in a minimalist, calm, restrained and subtle manner, "Close-Up" is both a contemplation about unusual people around us who seek attention in the most inappropriate ways and an ode to the power of cinema, whose illusion can even spillover to real life. Too bad Kiarostami didn't film some events described during the trial, since they would have been quite interesting on the screen (for instance, the Ahankhah family read in a film magazine that Makhmalbaf's new film received an award at the Venice film festival, but Sabzian pretended he was not there because it was only for the music category, which awakened their suspicion).
Grade:++
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