A Moment of Innocence
Filmfest 2006

A tricky Pirandellian meditation on memory, character and history that lures us into a Chinese-box-like world of contradictions and enigmas. In 1974, when Mr. Makhmalbaf was a 17-year-old rebel protesting the Shah‘s regime, he stabbed and seriously injured a young policeman, Mirhadi Tayebi, while trying to steal his gun and ended up serving six years in prison for the crime. Released after the Islamic revolution, he became a filmmaker. In 1994, while he was looking for nonprofessional actors to appear in his movie SALAAM CINEMA, who should audition but Mr. Tayebi, now an actor?... By thoroughly confusing fiction and documentary, personal history and personal fantasy, A MOMENT OF INNOCENCE becomes a heady exploration of memory, personal associations and multiple realities. Stephen Holden, New York Times, November 10, 1999