Noon o goldoon

The Iranian movie Nun va Goldoon (1996) was shown in the U.S. with the title A Moment of Innocence. The film was written and directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf.

Fact: director Makhmalbaf, as a young revolutionary, stabbed one of the Shah's police officers. Makhmalbaf was trying to take the policeman's gun. He got caught, and served five years in jail.

The rest of this movie is based on the theoretical concept that Makhmalbaf is making a film based on this event. Because the incident took place 20 years earlier, Makhmalbaf and the policeman must find younger actors to play themselves as a young revolutionary and a young policeman. Also, they need to cast the young woman who accompanied Makhmalbaf when he made his attempt.

Mirhadi Tayebi portrayed the policeman. I believe he was, indeed, the real-life policeman. Makhmalbaf plays himself.

However, we never actually see this movie. What we see is a movie about making a movie. It's fascinating. Nothing goes as planned, and we worry about it as much as the actors worry.

I've never seen a film quite like this. It was both entertaining and informative. See the trailer before you watch the film. That explains the moment of innocence.

We saw this movie on the small screen, where it worked very well. The film has a very high IMDb rating of 7.9. Worth that and more.

P.S. A little girl has a wonderful scene when the former policeman comes to her door. We've seen this type of verbal female schoolchild in other Iranian films. I assume they exist in real life, and I hope they're able to do well.

This is the greatest among the dozen or so Makhmalbaf titles I have seen. I was stunned that a movie so thematically complex (politics, history, redemption, etc.) can be conveyed with a superb lightness of touch. When you watch it, you really feel like you're watching a comedy. Only gradually does the movie reveal its many layers, culminating in a final freeze-frame that might be the BEST in all of cinema. More people should watch this movie! (It's certainly a lot more fun than anything by Abbas Kiarostami - a man who is more of a moral philosopher than a film-maker per se).

Makhmalbaf has arguably created one of the MOST interesting films I have seen in my entire life.

Casting young men unexperienced in acting to portray himself and the policemen he stabbed when he was 17, the director separates himself and his young self from the policemen and his; they separately train the actors portraying themselves 20 years earlier during an anti-Shah demonstration.

Culminating in the showdown between the young actors, the truths behind the situation unbeknownst to both director and policemen become evident. An extremely powerful film, and I advise you to stop at nothing to view it.

There is absolutely nothing bad I can say about this film. I was lucky enough to attend a screening of this gem last night at the Alamo Drafthouse. The show was nearly sold out, for good reason.

This film is about a real life experience that Mohsen Makhmalbaf had at the age of seventeen. When he was seventeen, he stabbed a police man while participating in a demonstration. He was imprisoned for five years. Twenty years after this event took place, he has made amends with the policeman he stabbed and is now making a film about this incident.

The film is a work of art. It is beautifully shot, with no over the top camera work and editing. The film is masterfully directed and it is very humanistic. This film will probably prove to be one if the most important films in the history of cinema, especially to Iranian filmmakers. I would recommend this film to any and everybody.

From what I've seen of Iranian Cinema, it seems to be that it is simultaneously simple and extremely complex. Simple in the way they capture real life moments, or simply cinematography-wise. Things look exactly how they would look in real life, the directors struggle is not to give reality another layer but to show it exactly like it is. Complex because it operates on so many levels. In "A Moment of Innocence", we talk about the meta-comment on cinema and its attempt to recreate reality, how we perceive our memories and how we would prefer real life to be like. The two main characters and their "young" counterparts are very elaborate, we get to know how their beliefs differ, how closely they resemble each other and what their goals become once they start to understand the way others think.

Beautiful imagery that transports us to the streets of Iran and its snowy roads, fantastic music and a brilliant ending that leaves us glued to the screen.