About this event

Hossain Sabzian, an unemployed cinephile, is arrested for impersonating the real Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf and conning a family into believing he'd cast them in his next film. Close-Up closes our month with Kiarostami's strangest, most beloved work: he got permission to film the actual trial, then had everyone involved, including Sabzian and the real Makhmalbaf, re-enact the events leading up to it, playing themselves. The result sits somewhere between documentary, courtroom drama, and philosophical essay on what it means to want, badly, to be someone else - regularly named among the greatest films ever made, ranking 17th in Sight & Sound's 2022 critics' poll. Werner Herzog called it the greatest documentary on filmmaking he's ever seen, while the Los Angeles Times' Dennis Lim described it as a window into the psyche of a complicated man. Five Weeks of Abbas Kiarostami: Close-Up (1990, Iran) Thursday, October 29 | Doors: 6PM | Film: 8PM | TicTic, Phnom Penh Free Entry & Popcorn - Arrive early for sofa, bed, or beanbag seating.