Close-Up

This is a wonderful film of a very special kind. Not your average movie in the sense that it is highly realistic and its subject somehow pedestrian. But the humanity with which it is shot and delivered is amazing: a world of humility, pride and grace is portrayed which at the present time could be much more than what we expect. It brings home the fact that whatever we might think of people and their ability to act as horribly as possible, there's always art and the art of the heart.

One day on a bus, an out of work father of two is mistaken for Mohsen Makhmalbaf, a famous Iranian filmmaker. He carries through with the ruse until he gets caught, and the family takes him to court, accusing him of fraud. The story is told through layers of flashback and shifting points of view. The look of the film is just as dynamic, using all sorts of film techniques - handheld, grainy 16 mm stock, the subtle use of shifting focus, and the all important close-up.

People tend to say that Abbas Kiarostami's style is a dead-crawl pace coupled with dry documentary images, but I've found his films to be wonderfully unravelling puzzles, full of frustrations and moments of perfect understanding. At times I think the key to Kiarostami's work is to simply earn it - the film may seem hard at first, you might be lost in the story, but don't give up! If you hang in there, you'll be rewarded with an unforgettable ending, like the one here in Close-up.

I find it amazing that this movie works as well as it does. The people in it are not actors. They are ordinary Iranian citizens who happened to be involved in a curious incident that aroused the interest of a very talented film director. As an American who is aware of the tension between Iran's government and its vibrant film industry, you can't help but to scour this simple story for an ideological message. Is it a protest film? Is it an "all is well with Iran" film? Well, it's not either. It's just a simple and relatively mundane story told by the people who actually lived it.

What I got out of it, and your mileage may vary, is a deep sense that there is something beautiful about seeing a relatively small matter as an event of deep significance, one that requires all your attention. There is no larger story that gives meaning to the small events portrayed in the film, but the people in it, as well as the filmmakers themselves, imbue them all with a great seriousness. All of it is done without a hint of parody or ulterior motive.

And it's not like Iran didn't have "big" issues to confront in 1990, as it was rebuilding its society after the brutal war with Iraq. The cheap and obvious thing to do, which many foreign movies try, is to tell a simple story with a background of an emotionally charged historical time. It's quite beautiful to see this movie avoid that trap. It's not like you'll be moved to tears or something, but that's a part of the point! In a way, the film's ostensible lack of manipulativeness is so fresh to American eyes that you might find yourself moved on a much deeper level. Well, that, or you might be totally confused. After all, there is no background score to instruct you on how you should be feeling at each instant.

Truly the best, freshest, most truly independent cinema is coming from Iran - or at least was in the nineties. Time will tell. My favourite is "Salaam Cinema", a film I would love to see again. This film, from Iran's Goddard (I spose you'd call him) Abbas Kiarostami is in the docu-drama tradition. It uses the real people who took part in the real events portrayed in the movie, it uses a documentary style, but it is a film - not a documentary. I feel you could add, but is it not a documentary? Because at times, you just don't know. A truly great film because it really sucks you in, time passes, I have no idea how long it ran because it was over too soon. Magic!

Nothing short of a masterpiece. Not for everyone's tastes. Discerning viewers tired of all the Hollywood tripe should definitely check out this low key but highly accomplished work about the amorphous quality of identity and the untrustworthy nature of celebrity. A film that will grow more and more important as the years go by.

The film's limited production values may turn off even the most discerning of viewers. Don't fear. It's just one of the many refreshing aspects about Kiarostami's "Close Up."

One of the best films of the nineties that people have never seen according to the stats here at IMDb.

Ten out of Ten.