It Was Just an Accident, 2025.
Written and Directed by Jafar Panahi.
Starring Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr, George Hashem, Zadeh Delmaz, Najafi Afsaneh, and Najm Abadi.
SYNOPSIS:
Vahid, an Azerbaijani auto mechanic, was once imprisoned by Iranian authorities. During his sentence, he was interrogated blindfolded. One day, a man named Eghbal enters his workshop. His prosthetic leg creaks, and Vahid thinks he recognizes one of his former torturers.
One would presume that, if there were a unified stance on anything, it would be what to do when a group of former prisoners of a corrupt Iranian regime encounters their torturer, whom one of them has taken upon himself to subdue and lock in a crate inside his van. Coming from a personal place, those thorny moral quandaries are what make writer/director Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident so scintillating and absorbing. Not only is everyone still processing the trauma and attempting to move on in different ways, but even their outlook on what vengeance entails spurs debates among them.
There is also the fact that this group isn’t even sure if this is indeed the man responsible for such heinous abuse. Auto mechanic Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) is hit with an overwhelming wave of paralyzing fear when, in the distance, he hears the prosthetic-legged footsteps of a man he believes to be Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi), a sadistic interrogator. The film also includes an early bit of subversion, depicting Eghbal (?) as a family man driving his family home, with his young daughter dancing and singing in the car. From there, an animal is inadvertently run over in the dark, leading to the fateful meeting from a distance, and his eventual kidnapping a day later in broad daylight.
Driving Eghbal into the middle of nowhere and conducting an interrogation himself, there are concerns about whether Vahid has the right man. There is also something suspicious in hindsight about Eghbal demanding his daughter turn the volume down in the car, as if such loud music and noises remind him of torture tactics he once used. We also understand that Vahid was tortured day after day by this man, to the point where he would know various specifics about Eghbal’s footsteps and injuries regardless of being blindfolded.
After vehement denials of these accusations, Vahid seeks out second opinions, which add to the cast one by one in a mildly clunky fashion, sometimes stretching a strong idea for a short into a feature-length running time. These supporting players of similarly abused prisoners range from a wedding photographer, a bride who hasn’t quite moved on even though her husband believes she has, and a temperamental man more sure than anyone that this is Eghbal and is practically ready to kill him right then and there. Dialogues consistently turn inward, with characters questioning whether they still want revenge or if pursuing it means they will become someone equally detestable. As each new moral test arises, the entire thematic conversation deepens.
However, when It Was Just an Accident shrinks its pool of characters back down for the climax, consisting of Vahid and wedding photographer Shiva (Mariam Afshari), there is one final confrontational back and forth with the man believed to be Eghbal that is explosive and unbearably intense, shot wide and drenched in red hues with the man strapped to a tree. Without spoiling, some of what is said may seem small, but it also says so much, expanding upon the character who, for the majority of the running time, is apprehended and sedated.
On one hand, It Was Just an Accident is a traditional reminder that vengeance is not always the answer, as it is brimming with political and traumatic specificities, giving the proceedings more emotional weight and power. The realization that the majority of these performers are non-actors is also a shock, considering that these are knockout turns across the board. The greatness of this film is no accident; it’s all blistering, powder-keg filmmaking from an impassioned Jafar Panahi, who is certifiably brave, insane, and essential to the arts for making this movie after being released from prison for criticizing the government himself.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder
