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Close-Up

Original title: Nema-ye nazdik · Turkish title: Yakın Plan

“A real-life situation based on a real incident in actual locations with actual people involved.”

1990 · 1 h 38 min
Directed by Abbas Kiarostami
BiographyCrimeDrama

Cast

Hossain Sabzian Mohsen Makhmalbaf Abolfazl Ahankhah

Credits

Written by: Abbas Kiarostami

Plot

A real case: Hossain Sabzian, a man in Tehran, pretended to be the famous director Mohsen Makhmalbaf and won the trust of a middle-class family, who thought he would put them in a film. He was arrested, and Abbas Kiarostami filmed the trial and reconstructed events with the people involved, who play themselves. The 1990 film blurs the line between fiction and documentary, and is an acclaimed landmark.

Sinekatalog’s take

Abbas Kiarostami mixes documentary and re-enactment around a man who impersonated a famous filmmaker. A playful and humane meditation on identity and cinema, and a pillar of Iranian film.Sinekatalog’s own editorial review – not a user or critic quote.

Ratings

IMDb: 8.2 / 10 (27,571 votes)
IMDb rating and vote count from the IMDb ratings dataset (October 2026). Scores change over time.

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