Dr. Reinhard Nagl would rather hide behind the walls of his extravagant Austrian castle than embrace the outside world, but when his 70th birthday approaches he is surprised by his overzealous best friend from childhood, Lorenz Zweig. Zweig invites laughter back into the walls of his friends home, enticing the staff to embrace romance and even conspiring to reunite Nagl with his first love - Magdalena. Has Zweig arrived too late or can Nagl learn to live before he dies.
Production
That Austrian castle is practically a character
Acting
Trixner and Futterknecht's decades-deep chemistry
Director
Alexander Peter Lercher
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Heinz Trixner was 84 during filming, making this one of Austrian cinema's rare leading-man roles for actors over 80.
The castle location required the crew to haul equipment up a mountainside daily — the 'close' in the title references both photography and emotional distance.
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