Close-Up

A man in Tehran gets into a family's house by saying he is a well-known director and promises to make a film with them. When he is caught he is tried for fraud. Hearing of the case, a director obtains permission and films the trial. He then films a reconstruction of the events, with every part played by the real people: the impostor, the family, the judge. The film thereby dissolves the line between documentary and fiction and ties its real question to that: why did the man tell this lie. Abbas Kiarostami directed. Hossain Sabzian plays himself. Who it's for: those who like films that play with the limits of cinema. Who it's not for: viewers wanting a constructed narrative; the film leaves its structure openly loose and the sound cuts out deliberately in the last section.