A Moment of Innocence

A chance meeting with the policeman Makhmalbaf stabbed when he was a young anti-Shah militant forms the basis for this revelatory metanarrative on cinema, mythmaking, and how we remember and retell our own stories. Seeing him again during a film audition years after the incident (the policeman, of course, wants to be an actor), Makhmalbaf approaches his former foe with an intriguing idea: to revisit their encounter as a film. Their memories, however, differ: Makhmalbaf recalls a political act, the policeman a thwarted romance with Makhmalbaf’s female colleague. Showcasing how our own memories are more idealized than fully realized, this self-reflective masterpiece is “delicate, funny, and touching by turns” (Variety).