A Moment of Innocence

Note: Persian with English subtitles.Released in '96 director Mohsen Makhmalbaf has created a cinematic masterpiece in this introspective semi-documentary film which provides the audience with a highly personal glimpse into real life events from his past. From the opening sequence of one solitary man walking along the train tracks as the "call to the faithful" echoes from a nearby mosque the film draws its audience into an almost surreal world containing a storyline being told by two individuals from two very different perspectives.The storyline merges and deviates back and forth between the memory of one particular event from the past that forever effected the course of both their lives. When all is said and done one ultimately learns that while perspectives and accounts may alter with the passing of time actions and events remain unchanged.Time disappears and one becomes lost in the intelligent dialogue and exotic urban landscape of Tehran to such a degree that when the closing credits suddenly and unexpectedly appear on the screen one feels as though awakening from a dream. And like a dream one is left with much to ponder and dissect in the days that follow.This is what filmmaking is all about!

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We open with a lone man, walking along a railroad track, looking at a paper, eventually finding his way to a house. The door opened by a small child (Hana Makhmalbaf, the director's youngest daughter, now a writer/director/activist herself) and the man informs the girl that he is the policeman (Mirhadi Tayebi) who is playing in her father's newest film - playing himself. There is an awkwardness, a shyness about both of these actors - both playing themselves, both "documenting" themselves, and this strangeness continues in this remarkable fusion of docudrama, comedy, confession and essay, easily my favorite of Mohsen Makhmalbaf's films thus far and one of my favorite Iranian films. This bears a certain obvious resemblance to Abbas Kiarostami's  Close-Up  from 1990, in that both revolve around real events happening in the life of Makhmalbaf and involve recreations of past events, often blurring the lines between fact and fiction; but while "Close-Up" is perhaps more thematically and narratively complex and consciously thought-provoking, "A Moment of Innocence" is in the end an emotional act of forgiveness. 20 years earlier, the director had been a young, radical Islamist in the last days of the Shah's reign, and had stabbed policeman Tayebi, resulting in a prison sentence for him and serious damage (apparently) to Tayebi's psyche. Interestingly, both also seem to have lost out on marriage possibilities as a result of the event, which get referred to several times.What's most fascinating about the film is that it's often impossible to tell whether Tayebi, and the young actor who is to play him in the film that's being made...oh wait, did I not tell you? This is really a film about the making of a film about this event - not the film itself. So we see Tayebi and Makhmalbaf coaching the younger versions of themselves, we see scenes reenacted by the actors and the "originals", discussions about what the actors are doing wrong, etc. There's a wonderful scene in a tailor's shop where Tayebi is going with his younger self to get a pre-revolutionary uniform, and the tailor just wants to talk about Kirk Douglas in "The Vikings" (1958) - one example of many in Iranian films showing a self-consciousness that the films that Makhmalbaf, Kiarostami and company are making aren't really what the average Iranian is going to see, and also a reminder of the changes since the revolution, as American films aren't as prevalent on Tehran screens anymore.Despite the seemingly complex interplays between fact, fiction, real people and actors playing them, this is a very easy film to watch and very funny in parts. It makes a good companion piece to "Close-Up", mentioned above, and would also profit by being watched in the light of some of Makhmalbaf's earlier forays into fact, fiction and film history like  Boycott  (1985) which shows the director closer to his radical roots, or  Once Upon a Time Cinema  (1992), which has some interesting stylistic parallels in it's recreations of past events. I will also mention that it offers some wonderful views of Tehran, particularly the older parts of the city, especially the huge bazaar which features in the powerful and hugely moving finale, with for my money one of the best ending shots in film history.

Iranian films aren't like your Hollywood blockbusters, with an intricate, action-driven plot. That said, if you're willing to try to get into the mindset of the characters, they have a depth and immediacy that US films simply don't match. In this movie, there is a film-maker who sees all of life as grist for movies, and a policeman whose entire life was changed by an act of the film-maker many years ago. When we realize that a woman is involved, and that the director had set her up to distract the policeman, while the policeman was falling in love with her, you realize things are not going to be resolved to the satisfaction of everyone... In an American film, you'd have some sort of definite ending, either violent or soppy, but the end of this one is open -- just like life. It seems to be the director's intention to have the viewer work out in his or her own mind what the characters are going to do after the "end." The first time I saw this one it absolutely blew my mind. The director, by the way, has two daughters who also make films, and have won awards for them.

The concept of a director creating a movie about a policeman he injured as a young revolutionary sure sounds intriguing, but the film just doesn't deliver. Seeing the policeman explain the circumstances of the incident to the young actor hired to play him is moderately interesting for a while, but should only be a beginning, not the high point of the film. What would have been truly interesting -- some interaction between the policeman and the film director -- doesn't happen at all. This film isn't even remotely close in quality to some of the classics of Iranian cinema such as "Children of Heaven."

This is definitely the best Iranian film I've seen. It collapses fiction and documentary into an absolutely unique, humorous and overwhelmingly moving statement about violent political idealism and its collision with the realities of life and love. In the 70's, the filmmaker was a teenage Islamic militant fighting against the Shah. He stabbed a policeman and was jailed. Years later he became a famous director. A man knocked at his front door and said, "I'm the policeman you stabbed. I want to be in one of your films. You owe me." The director said, "Let's make a film about what happened." This film is a reenactment/documentary about the making of that film and it blows me away every time.