When folks speak of Iran, they mostly speak of terrorism or nuclear power/weapons and this is quite sad, as despite controversial headlines, Iran stands at the forefront of world cinema. The films that have been coming from Iranian filmmakers for the past 20 years are the films that are inspiring the folks who are determining the future of cinema. There is a passage in Hamid Dabashi’s “Close-Up : Iranian Cinema, Past Present and Future” that says it all:

“Iranian cinema took the world by surprise simply because the world got a glimpse of our cinema only after it had decided the character of our culture through the prism of the Islamic revolution. These disabling circumstances and our liberating vision did not quite add up. The world wondered. But we were not surprised by the world. We watched and internalized, assimilated its vast and vociferous voices and visions from our own vision and projected them back. There was something extraordinarily liberating about the vast open-endedness of a white screen suddenly darkened, and then illuminated with colorful im/possibilities. In the cinema we were re-born as global citizens in defiance of the tyranny of the time and the isolation of the space that sought to confine us. In cinema, everything was possible, and in that possibility we defied our paralyzing limitations. The cinema revealed our hidden hopes as nation. With all the political and religious censorship that brutally limited our visual pleasures and experiences, we reveled in the rainbows of images that colored our cinematic daydreams.”

At the front of this cinematic revolution is Abbas Kiarostami and the film that for me, defines the future of film, Close Up. A mix of documentary and narrative, the film tells the story of a film buff who impersonates his favorite director, the acclaimed Mohsen Makhmalbaf, and becomes friends with a wealthy family. The story is true and the film is cast by the actual people, who reenact the events, with the added plotline of Kiarostami wanting to make a movie out of it.

It may sound confusing, but as an experience the film flows with ease, you may have to work a bit harder to enter the world that Kiarostami presents you with, but your work is rewarded over and over again. With Close Up, Kiarostami is saying more about the power of cinema and the realities of the documentary form than any conventional narrative could. As Jonathan Rosenbaum, a long time supporter of Iranian film said:

Much of the implicit comedy here comes from the way “cinema” changes and inflects the value and nature of everything–the original scam, the trial, the documentary Kiarostami is making. Werner Herzog has called this the greatest of all documentaries about filmmaking, and he may not be far off–if only because no other film does more to interrogate certain aspects of the documentary form itself. [Chicago Reader]

So while Iran continues to make headlines, the stories of the people continue to inspire cinema and a new form of telling stories. This is the just the beginning to the story of Iranian cinema, stay tuned to TakePart to learn more. For now, watch the trailer below and to rent the film for yourself. Imagine if Netflix got hundreds of requests for the film - that would be sending quite a message. So do it - you’ll be glad you did!