Close-up [videorecording] / The Criterion Collection ; Janus Films ; screenplay by Abbas Kiarostami ; produced by Ali Reza Zarrin ; directed by Abbas Kiarostami.
The traveler is based on a story by Hassan Rafie. Special features include: Disc 1. Audio commentary by Mehmaz Zaeed-Vafa and Jonathan Rosebaum, authors of "Abbas Kiarostami"; The traveler, director Abbas Kiarostami's first feature. Disc 2. "Close-up" long shot, a documentary on Close-up's central figure, Hossein Sabzian, six years after the film; new video interview with Kiarostami; A walk with Kiarostami, a documentary portrait of the director by Iranian film professor Jamsheed Akrami. Close-up: Appearing as themselves: Hossein Sabzian, Hassan Farazmand, Abolfazl Ahankhah, Mehrdad Ahankhah, Nir Mohseni Zanoozi, Ahmadreza Mohseni, Mohsen Makhmalbaf. The traveler: Masud Zandbegleh, Hassan Darabi, Mostafa Tari.
Contents:
Disc 1. Close-up (1990, 98 min.) -- The traveler (1974, ca. 73 min.) and special features. Disc 2. Special features.
Summary:
Close-up: This docudrama comments on Iranian society. Ali Sabzian claims to a fellow passenger on the bus that he is the famous Iranian film director Mohsen Makhmalbaf. He then becomes involved with his fellow passenger and her family, claiming that he has cast the family's son in a major role. At some point this tale comes unravelled, and the family takes him to court. A well-meaning judge persuades the family to drop the charges against this unemployed man. Ironically, while Ali is on trial, the maker of this current film (Abbas Kiarostami) decides to film the proceedings, and also stages reconstruction of the events leading up to the trial, using all the actual participants, but has the restaged trial end less happily. The Traveler: The story of a young boy who is obsessed with soccer, so much so that he forsakes all else and even cheats the local news seller just to buy a new soccer magazine. He's got a bad reputation at school because his mind is always on the game, and his mother is fed up with him. When his favorite team is playing in Tehran, he hatches a scheme to raise money to go see them. He cons school kids by pretending to take their picture with a stolen camera, and when that isn't enough, he sells his neighborhood team's goalie nets and ball. His journey to the city ends up being an eye-opener, a glimpse of disappointment, struggle, and isolation.
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