The real life scenario Close-Up recreates is that of the time film devotee Hossain Sabzian impersonated actual director Mohsen Makhmalbaf for a family, saying he desired to use their place of residence as a filming location for his next. Sabzian is a divorced man who feels he himself is a failure to himself, his ex-wife and his two children and uses this con as an opportunity to inhabit the identity of a man from more successful and respected than himself while garnering the respect of the family (who are familiar with the various works of Makhmalbaf) he is hoodwinking with his new persona.
Of course, the family soon gets wise to these shenanigans and, worried Sabzian might be trying to steal money or do some other nefarious acts, have him arrested. Close-Up recreates the trial of Sabzian as well as other pivotal moments like time Sabizan spent with the family or when Sabizan was arrested with all of the actual people involved in this case playing themselves. It's a unique and fascinating trick, as Close-Up dutifully recounts every detail that went down in this situation complete with the personnel involved all the while filming all of the events that transpire in a way that acts as if people are documenting everything right as it occurs.
Recreating the visual and audiotry fixtures of documentary filmmaking is where some of the best moments of Close-Up emerge, especially in a final sequence involving Hossain Sabzian and the real Mohsen Makhmalbaf, where the crew that is filming everything attempt to chronicle the duo's encounters....only for the audio on their recording to (intentionally) constantly go in and out without warning. It's those little things like that that utilize the naturally raw nature of documentary filmmaker to create some notable examples of subtle humor show a real knowledge of the inner workings of this type of filming.
It must be said that the plight of Hossain Sabzian retains a very surface-level feel to it in its depiction in this film, likely because, despite all of the numerous testimonies about his personality during the trial sequences that comprise the majority of the film, I still didn't feel like I hadn't garnered a better understanding of this guy beyond the fact that he was a cinema lover who made a really dumb mistake. On the other hand, it's mighty impressive how this production was able to coerce all of the real-life individuals involved in this affair to come back to play themselves, a really clever trick on the part of director Abbas Kiarostami.
The intimate nature of documentaries are supposed to let viewers become more knowledgeable about locations and people they otherwise may have never even heard of, let alone examined in an in-depth manner, That format of storytelling serves the plot of Close-Up as well and having not heard of the incident of Hossain Sabzian before, it was quite interesting to learn about his plight by way of these unique filmmaking techniques that are punctuated by an obvious love for the world of documentary cinema. While easier to admire than outright adore in some respects, Close-Up is still an interesting tale of deception gone too fare.
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