A newspaper article caught the eye of Abbas Kiarostami: an unemployed young film buff, Ali Sabzian, had wormed his way into the home and hearts of a well-to-do family by impersonating the well-known film director Mohsen Makhmalbaf. From this story Kiarostami made an offbeat film about cinema, the swindle and the dream. He enters the story cinéma vérité style, recreating events leading up to the imposter's exposure and arrest, then following the actual court proceedings. In droll re-enactments by obliging real-life protagonists (including Makhmalbaf himself), and in its pathetic hero, the film at times plays like Take the Money and Run ("Let him have his lunch!" the mother says to the arresting gendarmes). Certainly, Ali Sabzian's accusers attribute to him a craftiness he doesn't possess. His failing is a naivete that is shared by many: Close-up is a very moving and surprising film about anomie and the creative responses to it.