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Happy Birthday to Abbas Kiarostami. Kiarostami is my favorite director, an absolute legendary artist that transformed Iranian cinema. That ending sequence is such a brilliant scene, I can’t help but get emotional every time I watch it. Nema-ye Nazdik is a masterpiece. The film blurs the lines between fiction and reality in order to demonstrate the power of cinema. He transforms a story of deception into one of empathy. This film changed how I view movies. It changed how I view Iran. And it changed how I view the world. It is simply a work of art. Thank you, Kiarostami. Rest in peace.