A Moment of Innocence

Mohsen Makhmalbaf's Gabbeh is just the second Iranian film ever widely distributed in the U.S. (Jafar Panahi's The White Balloon was the first). A gabbeh is an Iranian carpet produced by the nomadic Ghashghai tribe of southern Iran, comparable to the folk art of American quilts; in the film's opening scenes, an elderly husband and wife travel to a nearby stream to wash their gabbeh, discussing the meaning behind the figures sewn upon it. The rug depicts a…Read More

Mohsen Makhmalbaf directed this Iranian-French drama set in the small town of Tadjikstan where Khorshid (Tahmineh Normatova), a blind 10-year-old, lives with his mother. Years earlier, his father went to Russia and never came back. Mother and son occupy a rented house by the river, but they are threatened with eviction by a landlord who wants the overdue rent. Khorshid makes daily bus trips to a maker of stringed musical instruments where he works as a…Read More