If you loved
Close-Up
Abbas Kiarostami · Film · 1990
If you loved Close-Up, you were likely captivated by how these stories blur the lines between performance, identity, and the unsettling nature of truth.
Books on the same thread
One Good Turn
Kate Atkinson · Book · 2007
Like the central deception in Close-Up, this narrative examines how a singular, unpredictable event forces ordinary individuals to reconcile their identities with the chaotic reality of their surrounding circumstances.
Largo Desolato
Václav Havel · Book · 1987
Much like the precarious existence explored in Close-Up, this play delves into the absurdity of life under a regime where the distinction between personal truth and state-imposed identity dissolves.
Death and the Dervish
Mesa Selminovic · Book · 1996
The protagonist’s descent into a Kafkaesque bureaucracy mirrors the existential questioning found in Close-Up, highlighting how the search for truth often reveals deeper layers of institutional and personal corruption.
Petersburg
Andrey Bely · Book · 1978
This kaleidoscopic portrait of a city reflects the same fractured sense of self and reality that Kiarostami masterfully deconstructs in the multilayered narrative structure of Close-Up.
Series on the same thread
The Crowded Room
Akiva Goldsman · Series · 2023
This exploration of a young man caught in a criminal investigation mirrors the fascination with identity and the performative nature of guilt that defines the core of Close-Up.
Making a Murderer
Moira Demos · Series · 2015
The commitment to dissecting a real-life legal ordeal here echoes the docufiction approach of Close-Up, challenging you to question the reliability of the narrative presented by the justice system.
Tokyo Vice
J.T. Rogers · Series · 2022
Just as Close-Up investigates the power of cinematic perception, this account of an outsider embedding himself into a foreign system explores the complexities of identity and objective truth.
American Crime Story
Scott Alexander · Series · 2016
These dramatized investigations utilize the same tension between public perception and private reality that makes Close-Up such a profound examination of how society constructs and consumes individual narratives.
Podcasts on the same thread
CounterClock
Audiochuck · Podcast · 2025
The investigative drive to revisit a cold case mirrors the way Close-Up re-examines a past event, proving that the truth is often a subjective construction waiting to be uncovered.
Criminal
Vox Media Podcast Network · Podcast · 2026
This series captures the same human complexity found in Close-Up by focusing on those caught between moral extremes, offering a nuanced look at the stories people tell about themselves.
Keep exploring
Common questions
Is Close-Up a documentary or a fictional film?
Close-Up is a fiction-documentary hybrid. It uses a sensational real-life event as its basis, but the actual people involved in the case participate by playing themselves. This unique structure allows the film to function as an investigation into identity and the nature of artistic creation.
Does Close-Up feature the real people involved in the case?
Yes, Close-Up features the real people from the case playing themselves. By having the actual participants reenact the events of the fraud charges, Abbas Kiarostami creates a multilayered investigation into existence and movies that blurs the line between reality and staged performance.
What is the premise of Close-Up?
The premise of Close-Up centers on the arrest of a young man accused of fraudulently impersonating the well-known filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf. The film explores this event to examine deeper themes regarding identity, the power of cinema, and the complex relationship between artistic creation and real life.
How does Close-Up explore the concept of identity?
Close-Up explores identity by documenting the real-life case of a man who impersonated a famous filmmaker. By casting the actual individuals in the story to play themselves, the film investigates how personal identity is constructed and perceived through the lens of movies and artistic performance.