Review: 'It Was Just an Accident' shows director Jafar Panahi telling a moving story of revenge and doubt, while slyly skewering the Iranian regime
Sometimes the best art comes from struggling against the forces of oppression arrayed against the artist — and few filmmakers have faced as much oppression as the Iranian director Jafar Panahi, and his new film, the suspenseful and absurdist “It Was Just an Accident,” is among the best films this year. (The jury at Cannes believed so when they awarded it the Palme D’Or.)
Panahi has been directing movies since 1995, with his debut “The White Balloon,” a tender and heartbreaking story about a little boy wanting nothing more than a goldfish for the new year. In the decade that followed, Panahi made small, sometimes delicate movies, usually with non-professional actors and often trying to skirt the rules of the strict Iranian authorities.
When you have time for a movie marathon, find “The Mirror” (1997), “The Circle” (2000) and particularly “Offside” (2006) — which depicted women trying to sneak into a soccer match, and which Panahi filmed partly in secret at an actual World Cup qualifying match.
After that, though, the Iranian regime cracked down. They arrested and jailed Panahi in 2010, and he was sentenced to six years imprisonment (he served a year and a half, then moved to house arrest) and a 20-year ban on making movies. He’s still managed to make six movies since, all of them illegally, sometimes having digital footage smuggled out of Iran. (Previously, my favorite of Panahi’s post-arrest movies was “Taxi,” in which the director played himself as a cab driver in Tehran — with his camera mounted on the dashboard.)
“It Was Just an Accident” starts with Rashid (Ebrahim Azizi), a man driving his pregnant wife and young daughter on a dark road. When Rashid accidentally runs over a stray dog in the road, he has to take the car to a mechanic. It’s in the garage where we learn that Rashid isn’t the main character, though he is the catalyst for all that follows.
In the garage, the mechanic’s colleague, Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri), hears the squeak of an artificial leg when Rashid walks. He has a chilling realization that Rashid is actually Eghbal, the man who tortured Vahid during his time as a political prisoner. After the car is repaired, Rashid/Eghbal drives his family home, and Vahid follows to see where his one-time tormenter lives.
Vahid isn’t certain that Rashid is Eghbal — he’s going by sound, because Vahid was blindfolded when he was imprisoned — and wants corroboration before killing him. So Vahid kidnaps the man, locks him in a foot locker in his van, and goes in search of others who were also tortured by Eghbal.
Soon Vahid has filled his van with people who may or may not remember the man who made them suffer. First is Shiva (Mariam Afshari), a wedding photographer who’s taking portraits of a couple. Soon the couple has joined the party, because the bride, Golrokh (Hadis Pakbaten), is also a survivor of Eghbal’s cruelty. Lastly is another survivor, Hamid (Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr), a hothead who doesn’t want to wait to confirm whether Rashid is really Eghbal.
The way Panahi blends suspense with dark humor is a skill we haven’t seen displayed so skillfully since perhaps the best days of Alfred Hitchcock. Like that old master, Panahi almost intuitively understands how to use humor as a release valve for the unbearable tension he’s building in every scene. Shrewdly, Panahi’s humor doesn’t undercut the suspense but emphasizes it.
The tension builds to a shattering conclusion, where Vahid gets to unload all of the pain, guilt and anger he’s felt for years — all directed at his alleged persecutor. Every word of Vahid’s angry monologue was written by Panahi, and it doesn’t take much to believe that he was channeling something deeply personal.
——
‘It Was Just an Accident’
★★★★
Opens Friday, October 31, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City). Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, violence, strong language, and smoking. Running time: 105 minutes; in Persian, with subtitles.
 
             
             
             
             
             
             
            