Un instant d'innocence

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.