A Moment of Innocence

One day a man stops by the family home of Mohsen Makhmalbaf (played by the director himself) who tells him he has an interest in one of the roles in his new film. Yet this isn't the first time the two men have met. It turns out that the unexpected guest is the former policeman whom Mohsen stabbed twenty years earlier as he attempted to take his gun during a revolt against the shah's regime. Although the director could never have predicted it, this dramatic event, which fundamentally influenced the lives of both men, serves as the theme of a film in which the protagonists decide to reconstruct the past. Makhmalbaf, who was sentenced to a five-year prison term in the 1970s, tells a powerful story where he examines his own history while providing a vehement commentary on the political atmosphere of the time. Today the director's testimony has lost nothing of its urgency, and the combination of his documentary and feature-film approaches renders A Moment of Innocence a highly respected contribution to world cinema. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)