A Moment Of Innocence
Picture: C
Sound: C+ Extras: C- Feature: B-
From a real life incident revisited, director Mohsen
Makhmalbaf’s A Moment Of Innocence (1996) tells of his time as a rebel
against The Shaw Of Iran back in 1974 when he was only 17 years old. He tried to steal the gun form a police
officer, but the attempt was a disaster and he stabbed the officer
instead. The real life officer surfaced
after Makhmalbaf became a director and was shooting a project. Amusingly, the officer told his former
stabber he wanted to be an actor.
Makhmalbaf put him in this film.
This project not only recreates the incident and gives the
different remembrances of what happened from the two principles, but decides to
take its time as a meditation on the space between the two men and this
includes various forms of role-playing.
Not a documentary, but an examination of the men and the country, which
has changed quite a bit after the extremist Islamic revolution that took over
(see Googoosh on this site) wiped out culture and freedom. Makhmalbaf’s work here has irony in it in
that he is fortunate the very force he supported would not allow a work like
this. This ultimately becomes about
Iran as a character too.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1/16 X 9 image is soft
and has color limits, especially being shot on video as it is. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is not bad, but
has no surround information. The only
extras on the DVD are for trailers of four other films from New Yorker, though
a fine essay about the film and Makhmalbaf can be found in a foldout inside the
DVD case by Godfrey Cheshire. They
should have included it as text on the disc itself.
- Nicholas Sheffo
