It Was Just an Accident – Dir: Jafar Panahi (13th Floor Film Review)
Covertly filmed on the bustling streets of Tehran, the stirring, Palme d’Or-winning and Oscar nominated It Was Just an Accident is the latest outing from the legendary Iranian director and democracy campaigner Jafar Panahi.
Despite filmmaking bans and imprisonment, it’s a miracle that audiences around the world are even able to see It Was Just an Accident. The film is the veteran director’s first since his seven-month stint in Iran’s notorious Evin prison, and it’s also Panahi’s most personal and accessible film to date.
A searing rebuke of authoritarianism, It Was Just an Accident opens in the dark. A man (Ebrahim Azizi) with a prosthetic leg is driving his car at night when he accidentally hits and kills a dog. This seemingly benign accident causes the car to break down, so the man pulls into a random garage, where he is recognised by Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri). Once imprisoned, blindfolded and tortured by the regime, the squeak of the prosthetic leg is the same as that made by his captor. Vahid acts, and kidnaps the man, setting in motion a series of escalating events, as a colourful collection of characters are brought together to confirm the identity of a man whose face they never saw.
Despite the twisted stakes, It Was Just an Accident is disarmingly funny, as it veers from the absurd to the macabre. Punctuated by about-turns in tone and unexpected twists, this miracle of a film probes ideas of trauma, truth and justice with such conviction, you can feel Panahi’s rage radiating out from the screen. Some of the bitter irony may be lost on audiences far removed from the horrors of oppression, but It Was Just an Accident’s excruciating ending, which unfolds over 15 gut-punching minutes, is a descent into the shadows of evil. You can’t forget it, nor should you want to.
Thomas Giblin
It Was Just an Accident is in cinemas now. Click here for tickets and showtimes.
