Moments of Innocence (DVD) by Mohsen Makhmalbaf

Iran 1996. Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaf. Color, in Farsi with English subtitles. 75 mins.

 

Fact meets fiction in the most intriguing fashion in this Mohsen Makhmalbaf's film . This captivating

follow-up to his acclaimed Salaam Cinema (1995), which told the stories of ordinary Iranians who

want to become movie stars, is based on an incident from the Iranian screenwriter and director's youth.

At age 17-while a member of an anti-Shah militant group-Makhmalbaf attacked a policeman in an

attempt to steal his gun. He stabbed the officer with a knife and took a bullet in return. The policeman

went to the hospital; Makhmalbaf went to a torture chamber hosted by the dreaded SAVAK secret police.

He stayed there until the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Twenty years later, the filmmaker placed an ad in the

paper to recruit actors for Salaam Cinema. The same wounded officer responded to the ad. In A Moment

of Innocence, the victim and the assailant both get the chance to tell their side of the story. In the process,

they exorcise the demons of their past while examining how film and memory shape our perceptions.

The result ha s been hailed as a sly, witty film with a script honed to razor sharpness and carefully

hewn characters. 

Runtime: 110 minutes   
Type: Family film 
Language: Farsi with English subtitles

Picture quality:

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