UK mag names Iran movie on top list

Iranian movie ‘Closeup’ has been ranked among top 25 greatest foreign films of history.

The film directed by late Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, has been named among top films by the British magazine Far Out.

The magazine has selected a lineup of 25 best and most influential non-English films of history.

“Arguably the greatest filmmaker of the Iranian New Wave, Abbas Kiarostami masterfully blurs the distinctions between fiction and non-fiction, between fantasy and reality in his postmodern docudrama, Close-Up. Profoundly meta-fictional in nature, Kiaorostami examines the performative roles all of us play with the precision of a surgeon and the delicate touch of a poet,” the official website wrote.

The website added: “Based on true events, Kiarostami emphasizes on the ‘creation’ part of a reconstruction that features the tragic story of an unemployed aspiring filmmaker, Hossein Sabzian. Close-Up is a beautiful yet unsettling cinematic psychoanalysis of an ordinary man.”

Abbas Kiarostami, who has died in July 2016, was an Iranian film director, whose ‘Taste of Cherry’ grabbed the Palme d’Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.

He is mostly known as a screenwriter, film editor, art director and producer as well as a poet, photographer, painter, illustrator, and graphic designer.

The cinematic works by the internationally acclaimed filmmaker have been hailed by various festivals around the world.

"It was in his Close Up ... that Kiarostami left students of world cinema with a masterpiece to behold and wonder at for generations to come," a cinematic article hails the Iranian director's film.

Far Out Magazine is a leading publication within independent culture based in the UK.

With an open platform for independent artists to be held in the same regard as mainstream success, Far Out is constantly attempting to push the boundaries of how a reader digests their information.

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