It's a telling anatomisation of the cross- class encounter between the wealthy Ahankhan family and the working-class Sabzian, both united by a shared love of cinema and art, at least until the "fraud " is revealed. It also contains moments of a certain kind of low-key formal daring in which Kiarostami takes inconsequential moments and details and lovingly foregrounds them. An aerosol can is kicked down a street and the camera holds on its clattering descent, an aeroplane passes overhead and a character follows it with his eyes. Kiarostami instals himself, with a curiously effective combination of insistence and unobtrusiveness, between the story and its telling. When, on Sabzian's release from prison, the real Makhmalbaf is there to meet him and take him to visit the Ahankhans again, Kiarostami's crew films the encounter from a car across the road. Their ancient sound equipment cuts in and out and, as Sabzian collapses tearfully into his alter ego's arms, this moment of concluding catharsis is interrupted by the crackle of malfunctioning electronics. It's an accidental tour de force that's no accident; the car follows the couple on a motorbike and their conversation is conveyed in gobbets of sound.

Just seeing Sabzian restored to the world by cinema is, in itself, enough.`Close-Up' opens in London at the ICA and the Rio on 19 December.. `Close Up' is screened with Nanni Moretti's short film `The First Day of the Premiere of Close-Up'. The director of `Dear Diary' talks about Kiarostami and the travails of opening `Close-Up' at his cinema, the Nuovo Sacher, in Rome. In my short film I wanted not only to pay homage to the cinema of Kiarostami but also to the people who release Close-Up in cinemas.

I think that much of the power of Close-Up comes from the main character who's not an actor, but is a representation of the real person and the power that the cinema has over this man This is the right moment for Kiarostami's cinema. Although it looks very simple initially, it is very sophisticated and it's very difficult to accomplish such simplicity. The deeper level is that it's often a reflection on cinema itself. We started the Nuovo Sacher six years ago but there isn't really any more space now for a different kind of cinema. I don't want to say that I want to educate the public but it's important to form a public in such a way that a relationship can be created between them and the cinema.