Salaam Cinema

After an overwhelming response to an open audition for a film celebrating cinema’s 100th anniversary, Makhmalbaf decides to make a movie about the process. In some ways a playful, candid response to the type of metafictional “documentary” popularised by Kiarostami’s highly influential Close-Up – and in which Makhmalbaf himself played a central role – this is an important stepping-stone in Makhmalbaf’s career, allowing the director to comment on the autocratic power of cinema, the tricks and manipulations of filmmaking, and the profoundly porous relationship between cinema and everyday life.