In every film there is an understanding by the audience that they are watching a story, or a collection of sound an images, from the point of view of a director. Even documentaries do not necessarily show the truth. A documentary comes closer to the truth than most fictional films, but it is still the product of the vision of one director. Most films leave the question of truth at that. The audience knows it is watching the film from the point of view of another person, but whatever happens in the narrative, inside of the world the director created, is normally taken at face value. In the film Rashomon, which I will look at in Part II, Akira Kurosawa goes beyond, to explore the question of the truthfulness of the individual, through the use of flashbacks, which he accomplishes in a purely fictional film. In A Moment of Innocence, Mohsen Makhmalbaf starts off with an actual, documented historical event, and from there he tries recreate it, mold it into what he dreamed the truth could have been, and what he currently wishes it had been.
Mohsen Makhmalbaf was a young Iranian revolutionary who stabbed a police officer to get his gun, then steal a bank and give away the money to support his cause. It seems that over time, he became regretful of what he did, and made a film to express his feelings. Part of his plan was to recreate, with young actors, the scene of the stabbing. A Moment of Innocence ends with the pivotal moment in which the young Makhmalbaf is supposed to stab the officer, but he backs off, and instead offers the officer some bread. Simultaneously, the young officer, with the knowledge that he would be attacked, hands him a flower. In one of the most shocking final shots in all of cinema, the frame freezes, and the audience is left looking at the image of two sworn enemies making peace with one another as the credits roll by slowly. The audience should not feel cheated. This moment of innocence is false in that it did not correspond to what happened to Makhmalbaf in real life, but it is also true and sincere because it did not violate the integrity of the story, or the characters. Both the young Makhmalbaf and the young police officer within the film had expressed their doubts about the upcoming incident. In fact, when young Makhmalbaf was supposed to stab the officer the first time, he broke down in tears, and could not go through with it. The final moment fits in well with the larger narrative of these two innocent characters. It is an example that we are watching the vision of the real Makhmalbaf, the director ex-revolutionary, who now wishes he had taken a moment, like the young hero of the film, to think about what he was going to do and change his mind. The final moment is what he now wishes the truth would have been.
Makhmalbaf goes further in exploring the truth of the cinematic image. Within A Moment of Innocence, the film of Makhmalbaf the director, is a false documentary concerning Makhmalbaf, the character, trying to recreate the incident that changed his life. Although it is not immediately obvious, there are several signs that show this is a “mockumentary.” First is the clapperboard which appears before several scenes. It makes the upcoming scene seem like an outtake, in which the actors normally get out of character, and “play themselves.” For example, in one scene, the police officer turned actor is filmed saying that he wants to play himself. That is a natural reaction, it feels unscripted, like it would not be in a fiction film. Also, there is a scene in the beginning in which the police officer goes looking for Makhmalbaf at his home. In a real documentary, there would be no one filming this part of the story, but since the scene is taking place within Makhmalbaf actual fictional feature film, Makhmalbaf is there filming it, giving a subtle hint to his audience that the scene is staged. Most of the film takes place at this level, in the “mockumentary” concerning the making of a film recreating the stabbing. Therefore, the scenes portraying Makhmalbaf and the officer training their younger selves should be taken at face value, as any other film should. The characters we see are two men defeated, who were humiliated in their youth, and have the chance to go back to the pivotal event which changed their lives. Both characters are angry, Makhmalbaf for failing in his mission, and the officer for letting himself be fooled by a girl who merely pretended to love him. Perhaps, these characters are versions of the actual officer and Makhmalbaf who were, at that time, working together to make the film. The real people seem to have overcome this event, but their characters, played by themselves, are part of an elaborate “what if” fantasy where they could go back and do complete their missions right. That is why the Makhmalbaf character urges his younger self to go through with the stabbing, and why the officer tells his younger self to shoot anyone who comes near. The characters, like many characters in several films, can be seen as projections of the actual filmmakers and can therefore claim some semblance of truth.
Verdict- 3.5/4
A Moment of Innocence (1996) 1h 18min.
Note- Unfortunately A Moment of Innocence is almost impossible to find since the distributor went bankrupt. However, Rashomon, which I will write about in Part II, is easily available and I highly recommend buying/renting it.
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