A Moment of Innocence

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A Moment of Innocence
Directed by	Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Produced by	Abolfazi Alagheband
Written by	Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Starring	Mirhadi Tayebi Mohsen Makhmalbaf Ali Bakhsi
Cinematography	Mahmoud Kalari
Editing by	Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Release date(s)	August 13, 1996
Running time	78 min.
Country	Iran/France
Language	Persian
IMDb profile

A Moment of Innocence (Persian: Nun va Goldoon) — also known as Bread and Flower^[1], Bread and Flower Pot, and The Bread and the Vase^[2] — is a 1996 film directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf.

1 Film synopsis
2 Critical reaction
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] Film synopsis

The film is a semi-autobiographical account of Makmahlbaf's experience as a teenager when, as a seventeen-year-old, he stabbed a policeman at a protest rally and was jailed.

Two decades later, Makhmalbaf made the decision to track down the policeman whom he had injured in an attempt to make amends. A Moment of Innocence is a dramatization of that real event.

[edit] Critical reaction

Although the film was banned in Iran, Western critics were very positive toward the film. Mike D'Angelo called A Moment of Innocence "a dizzying hybrid of autobiography, documentary, and mythology,...[a] bold[]...testament to our innate decency and capacity for love," and said that it "ends with the greatest final freeze-frame since The 400 Blows -- maybe the greatest final freeze-frame ever^[3]." Stewart Klawans of The Nation said readers should contact him immediately "if [they] see another film with so urgent and complete an image of people's hurts, fears, needs and dreams^[4]." One of the few negative critical reactions came from Mick Lasalle of the San Francisco Chronicle, who called the film "grindingly dull," and "muddled and endless" and implied that Makhmalbaf's filmmaking was "self-indulgent, meandering, pointless and irritating^[5]."