Abbas Kiarostami died a few months ago, so I decided that I would watch this movie of his. "Nemā-ye nazdīk" ("Close-Up" in English) is based on the story of a man who pretended to be filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, and the subsequent trial. The movie tests your attention span with its long scenes and emphasis on dialog.
I hadn't known of the story until I watched the movie. Kiarostami's movies often look at people striving towards goals (the only other one that I've seen is "Taste of Cherry"). But beyond the story, the movie functions as a look at this turning point in Iran's history. They had just come out of the eight-year-long war with Iraq - when the US, UK, Israel and USSR had armed Saddam Hussein against the revolutionary government - and Ayatollah Khomeini had just died. Iran remained a mostly isolated state for years afterwards until the US overthrow of Saddam Hussein allowed the Islamic Republic to have a stronger hand in the region.
Anyway, the movie is worth seeing. Both Kiarostami and Mokhmalbaf play themselves in it. Too bad that we won't see any more Kiarostami movies. This year took him, David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Prince, Muhammad Ali, Gene Wilder, Leonard Cohen, Leon Russell and Lupita Tovar. That and the ascendance to the US presidency of an unhinged demagogue make 2016 one crummy year.
I hadn't known of the story until I watched the movie. Kiarostami's movies often look at people striving towards goals (the only other one that I've seen is "Taste of Cherry"). But beyond the story, the movie functions as a look at this turning point in Iran's history. They had just come out of the eight-year-long war with Iraq - when the US, UK, Israel and USSR had armed Saddam Hussein against the revolutionary government - and Ayatollah Khomeini had just died. Iran remained a mostly isolated state for years afterwards until the US overthrow of Saddam Hussein allowed the Islamic Republic to have a stronger hand in the region.
Anyway, the movie is worth seeing. Both Kiarostami and Mokhmalbaf play themselves in it. Too bad that we won't see any more Kiarostami movies. This year took him, David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Prince, Muhammad Ali, Gene Wilder, Leonard Cohen, Leon Russell and Lupita Tovar. That and the ascendance to the US presidency of an unhinged demagogue make 2016 one crummy year.