It Was Just an Accident marks dissident filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s first film since being released from prison in Iran.
Neon, which also released The Year of the Everlasting Storm, an anthology in which Panahi has one story, acquired the North American rights after the Cannes Film Fest, whereit premiered to great acclaim, deservedly winning the top lrize, Palme d’Or.
Panahi is no longer the filmmaker he once was, transforming from understated humanist (in films “The White Balloon” and “Offside”) to openly critical of the Iranian regime, as revealed in his punchy new political thriller, “It Was Just an Accident.”
The irony of is that Panahi may never have become so explicitly defiant of his persecutors if the system had not tried to crack down as harshly as it did. Arrested multiple times for so-called “propaganda” and locked up on two occasions (released only after he went on hunger strike), Panahi has become even more defiant, emerging fired up and determined to fire back by making socially and political relevant movies.
Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) was blindfolded when he was beaten, but he knows the sound of Peg Leg’s walk when it limps into the auto garage where he works.
For Shiva (Maryam Afshari), who refuses to wear the veil in her work as a wedding photographer, the man’s distinct smell (the way he reeked of sweat) offers the necessary evidence
Meanwhile, hot-headed Hamid (Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr) insists it’s the guy’s voice that takes him back to the times when he was interrogated, left to stand for hours with a noose around his neck.
Panahi encourages the viewers to show empathy, if not full sympathy, with this family, whose members seem to represent decent Iranian citizens.
At a nearby garage, Panahi adds Vahid to the cast, but refuses to manipulate our feelings toward him. If anything, this disheveled new addition comes across like a slob, cowering out of sight in the rafters of the building. But something about Eghbal has upset him, and it’s not until the next day, when he stalks and eventually abducts this stranger that his motives become clearer.
By now, the victims outnumber their oppressor. When things eventually reach a tipping point, Panahi wonders whether the revenge should be cruel, or should they show mercy? Just how far off can revolution be?
Panahi is no longer challenging specific policies (the way “The Circle” depicted gender inequality and “This Is Not a Film” pushed back on limits to personal expression) but riases effectively more universal and existential issues: the very nature of truth?
Except for Azizi, who plays Eghbal, the performers are all nonprofessionals, and much of the low-budget production is spent not on traditional sets, but within a Vahid’s white van – or in the back, where Shiva has brought along the bride (Hadis Pakbaten) and groom (played by the director’s nephew, Majid Panahi) from a recent photo shoot.
Her story is the most upsetting one we hear in a film that boils with rage, but still takes its time to play out.
The director’s anger comes as no surprise, though audiences may be caught off-guard by the humor. Take the scene of the couple pushing the van in their wedding gown and tuxedo. As the livid bride-to-be tells the man she’s supposed to marry, “It all started before you, and it has to stop someday.”
The film’s chilling last scene feels like a call to action. For most of its running time, It Was Just an Accident leaves unanswered whether Vahid and company have the right one-legged man.
The movie shows that those who’ve been protesting unfair working conditions or appearing immodestly dressed in public–are now united by their mistreatment.
The characters’ backstories were directly inspired by the tales Panahi had heard while incarcerated, suggesting that he couldn’t have written this movie without meeting like-minded people in prison That means, even if the authorities crack down on Panahi, he’s not alone.
The tone-shifting in the film is deftly and subtley handled, including its farcical elements–dysfunctional-family road-trip comedy, in which a growing number of folks cram into a rickety van, arguing over where to go and what to do.
But in the end, after building up to a sequence that promises the release of fury and horror, it’s the social critique that matters. Like other provocative morality tales, It Was Just an Accident raises issues thatb are not easily categorized nanswerable, the uncertainty of the truth, the dubious results of physical and mental torture, and the choice between revenge and mercy.
Panahi has turned his personal struggle of a lifetime into an impactful work that reveals a humanistic view at its deepest and most consequential.
