Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Close Up, 1990

Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Hossain Sabzian
in Kiarostami's Close Up (کلوزآپ ، نمای نزدیک), 1990
(source: Sound Cloud)
no copyright infringement intended

A guy (just a guy, you know, nothing more) claims to be a well-known filmmaker (Mohsen Makhmalbaf) and the people seem be willing to believe him very easily. Is he a scammer, or a man living his illusions to the extreme? (at the end, the real filmmaker appears, and the confusion seems to be total). A reporter notices the possibility of a journalistic hit and determines the police to arrest the guy: the newsman will practically direct the action, while recording everything. Another well-known filmmaker (Abbas Kiarostami this time) asks to film the trial, and his request is approved immediately. The trial fails to clarify anything (in fact, at the end the plaintiffs withdraw their complaint), but the ciné-vérité feeling is overwhelming. Vanity Fair. We are in the Tehran of the 1990's, and the people there seem obsessed with turning their lives into a movie show. After all, is the movie art struggling (and probably failing) to create the illusion of reality, or the other way around?

Abbas Kiarostami, Close Up, 1990
(video by Hesham Mohamed)

(I'm in the Mood for Kiarostami)

(Mohsen Makhmalbaf)