Abbas: Close-Up

Made in 1990, this is Abbas Kiarostami's masterpiece. It is about the suffering of life and the desire of self-expression through art. A unemployed young men, Hossain Sabzian, was obsessed in film-making, and he made himself up as a famous Iranian director, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, to another unemployed mechanical engineering graduate who was zealous too to act in movie. Finally he was found out and sent to a trial. He defended himself the motivation to pretend as a film director, which moved the judge and also the plaintiffs in the context of unemployment and his ardour for art. In the final scene, the true and false Makhmalbaf went to the victim family’s house to ask forgiveness and they received a warm welcome. The music at this moment come out, as a mere appearance in the whole movie, and is beautiful and touching.

The film is based on a true story, and the main characters were acted by real person. In an interview, Abbas said this is the only film he really like among his films, what appealed to him was mainly what is going on inside Sabzian, and this film is like a form of therapy that help them to explore that. Abbas says he also cheat and get cheated, and he also need respect. He and the main character, Sabzian, share the same social background. The film was so successful in festivals that some audience sharing no common social background found them developed an emotional tie to this anti-heor character, concerning what he was doing and where he was now. what he like this film is that it is entirely inspired by the subject matter and the character involved. Some critics commented that this film was made under particular social circumstance where Iran and Iranians seemed to be going through an identity crisis, and Close-up poses some questions about the collective identity of a nation. Abbas replied that he didn’t have such view when making the film, although it might be true at the end. The lawsuit itself is not as important as what attracted both Ahankhahs (the cheated) and Sabzian (the cheating) to each other in the first place. It might be an identity crisis, a depression, or a common problem. Being asked about his some abnormal characters in his films, Abbas said that we are of the same nature as these characters, which is the same grounding, even the abnormality, shared by the actors, the directors, and many views relating to the film. Abnormal people who go to great length, break the boundaries, and cross the lines, tell us that ‘the limit you set for us are too confining for us and we need more space’. To those abnormal people, we should not act like a court and put them on trial, but should view them as an example of people who didn’t receive proper and timely care. Despite all the laws designed for the protection of deprived people, they were somehow left uncared for and started using their imagination at a point where there was no room for using one’s imagination.