Hossain Sabzian

Hossain Sabzian was an Iranian man best known for being the star of the 1990 docufiction film CloseUp directed by Abbas Kiarostami which is widely regarded as one of the greatest movies ever made and depending on who you ask the greatest film of Iran ever In 1989 Sabzian tricked a poor family into believing he was famous Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf These events were later adapted into the previously mentioned film He was born around 19531954 or in the year 1332 on the Solar Hijri calendar and is believed to be from Tehran from his comment about himself being an unemployed youngster from Tehran He is believed to be from the weaker social class and having a poor working class background working as a printshop laborer since childhood He lived in Isfahan as a boy where he skipped school for three months to watch cinema and he recalled sneaking to the cinema each day until being caught by his school and being punished His love of cinema shaped his life and is a key aspect of it He was once called a impoverished unemployed movie nut A film he deeply admired was Mohsen Makhmalbafs The Cyclist 1987 CloseUp depicts Sabzian reading a book on the film the first time he and a member of the poor family he tricked the mother Mahrokh Ahankhah met While many would simply label him as a con artist trying to take something from a poor family Kiarostamis direction in CloseUp brings empathy to him showing him as a lonely passionate man trying to do something different even if a bit morally questionable The film made Sabzian a legend for cinephiles and was perhaps his only chance at being noticed and seen Despite this in the years that followed its release he grew into a deep depression and felt alienated in public In his adult life Sabzian particularly before the film worked in a printing press and made a few amateur films even shooting home wedding videos however struggled to finance a career in filmmaking He spent much of his time writing scripts but none of them became official He became unemployed in the late1980s In 1989 Kiarostami learned of Sabzians story from a magazine article and arranged to film his trial The net result was that Sabzian served a short time in jail and was freed after the family pardons him due to his lack of criminal intent understanding he had acted out of love for cinema Sabzian faced no further punishment He made a living in his final years selling pirated DVDs at Tehran bus stations In his life he had chronic asthma and his health declined due to it On the way to meet Kairostami again on another film he collapsed from respiratory failure on a crowded subway and lapsed into a coma One account notes he spent 102 days in a coma before he passed away on September 29 2006 at the age of 52