This fiction-documentary hybrid uses a sensational real-life event—the arrest of a young man on charges that he fraudulently impersonated the well-known filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf—as the basis for a stunning, multilayered investigation into movies, identity, artistic creation, and existence, in which the real people from the case play themselves.
Kiarostami has made a film that looks into the heart of a man accused of a crime and, instead of evil, discovers only sweetness, longing and a sad confusion.
– Stephen Holden,
New York Times,
25 Sep 2001
fresh:
Kiarostami's film has artichoke-like layers which, once peeled, are forever resonant.
– Michael Atkinson,
Village Voice,
13 Mar 2002
fresh:
Successfully blends fact with fiction to produce a work more compelling than any of today's infotainment programs.
– Gary Dowell,
Dallas Morning News,
11 Apr 2002
fresh:
The meanings of Close-Up shift, subtly and profoundly, with every viewing; the only certainty is that its rewards are boundless.