A Moment of Innocence is a mostly fictional documentary directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf about a director named Mohsen Makhmalbaf (played by Makhmalbaf) attempting to create a film about an event that happened to twenty years ago when Makmalbaf stabbed a policeman, Mirhadi Tayebi (played by Mirhadi Tayebi). This event happened to Makhmalbaf in both reality and the film’s reality thus the film might confuse audiences as its content seems to be that of a documentary yet it is probably almost entirely fiction. To establish this fictionality, Makhmalbaf employs “unnaturalistic” camerawork (using manual focus) in multiple scenes thus posing a hint to puzzled viewers about the film’s truthfulness. Eventually, through such methods, Makhmalbaf creates a worthy tribute to cinema (the concluding freeze frame is blatantly a tribute to its power), an assesment of the unreality of cinema and a touching drama all at the same time. Pure brilliance!