A Moment of Innocence
d. Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 1996
In what is surely one of the most accomplished films of the 1990s, director Mohsen Makhmalbaf attempts to recreate an event from his youth. At the age of 17, he stabbed a police officer. According to A Moment of Innocence, 20 years have passed and the officer has gotten in touch with Mr. Makhmalbaf. Throughout the film's brief 75 minutes, each of them spends time with the actor playing the younger version of themselves. The film is consistent in its ironies, and it's clear that Makhmalbaf has this whole thing more planned out than it appears on film, which makes it difficult to tell what moments are staged and which aren't. By the end of the film, however, by having spent time with both of the parties involved with the event, Mr. Makhmalbaf has succeeded in, yes, crafting a moment of innocence, as well as one of the most moving (if ambiguous) endings in modern cinema.
