This fascinating documentary on Makhmalbaf illustrates the artist's life with clips from his films that are only slightly more surreal than his own experience. Makhmalbaf speaks candidly about his inspirations, revolutionary fervor, faith, and the changes each has gone through. He takes the filmmaker to the very spot where the key incident of his youth and quick initiation into adulthood occurred: at age seventeen, as a member of a revolutionary group, he attempted to disarm one of the Shah's policemen, knifing him in the process; Makhmalbaf was sent to prison and tortured. Footage of the funeral of Makhmalbaf's wife, who tragically died along with their children in a fire, forces us to rethink the role of tragedy on the screen. A film about the power of cinema, and the power of life to shape it, Stardust Stricken is a rare glimpse into the thinking of an artist. The filmmaker Houshang Golmakani is the editor of Film Monthly, Iran's oldest and most prestigious film magazine. Written by Golmakani. Photographed by Kaveh Golestan. With Mohsen Makhmalbaf. (70 mins, In Farsi with English subtitles, B&W/Color, 3/4" video) A Moment of Innocence Mohsen Makhmalbaf (Iran/France, 1996)(Nun-o-goldun/The Bread and the Vase). Another delightful twist on the idea, developed in Salaam Cinema (see May 29), that life is just a rehearsal for the movies. It seems that, twenty-two years after the knifing incident described in Stardust Stricken (above), Makhmalbaf and the policeman in question are to meet again: like any self-respecting Iranian, the cop wants to become an actor. Makhmalbaf does him one better, inviting him to direct the film version of this crucial incident in both their lives. But just what went down that fateful day is up for grabs-the cop remembers a thwarted love affair, Makhmalbaf, a planned sabotage-so we are treated to numerous versions in the intriguing manner of Time of Love (see May 15). Makhmalbaf, as always, draws on the eccentricities of his characters, but the appearance of happenstance didn't fool the critics, who know what hard work that effect entails. As Derek Elley wrote in Variety, "There is an almost Rohmer-esque purity and precision about this film, which (is) delicate, funny, and touching by turns."