'I didn't make this film myself. The Islamic Republic made it by putting me in prison'

It Was Just An Accident. Jafar Panahi: 'This is the kind of film you typically make once a regime is over, once a dictator is no longer there, when it's time to practically question, what do you do with the remnants of a certain regime?' Photo: Courtesy of Locarno Film Festival

Since it premiered at Cannes Film Festival and took home the Palme d’Or, Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident has been working its way around the festival circuit, with upcoming showings due in Toronto, New York and San Sebastian.

The drama charts what happens when a man (Vahid Mobasseri) stumbles across another man (Ebrahim Azizi) who he believes was his torturer in prison and takes him captive, only to find himself roping in other former prisoners to confirm the identity because he has only heard the noise his ex-captor’s prosthetic leg makes when he moves. Each of those he involves, however, has a very different perspective on what should happen to their former oppressor.

The film also recently stopped off at Locarno – where it screened in the open-air Piazza Grande – and where Panahi took questions from the press.

Jafar Panahi in Locarno: 'I only know how to make films and my only love is cinema' Photo: Amber Wilkinson

The director recalled his first visit to the Swiss festival in 1995, with The White Balloon. He said: “Coming and seeing 8,000 spectators there to watch my film with me was really, really special experience. The Piazza Grande really is like a dream, especially as a film young filmmaker presenting your first feature film so it is something I'll never forget.”

Panahi went on to win a Golden Leopard for his next feature The Mirror in 2007. Since then his career has been marked by his own periods of detention by the Iranian government, along with a ban on making films that he proceeded to circumvent in a multitude of ways.

When it is suggested that his career has been marked by acts of “bravery”, Panahi says: “I'd like to clarify that courage is the wrong word. I'm a very afraid person in life. I only know how to make films and my only love is cinema. When I don’t make films, I become immediately depressed and I cease to exist really, so I make films in order to remain alive, and I make films through fear.”

He says he began thinking about making the film, which explores the trauma of torture and notions of revenge, after he was released from jail himself.

“I realised, the time had come to work,” he adds. “And all of a sudden I remembered the many stories and words I'd heard while I was in prison. I realised that within Iranian society, it's as if every different group is playing a different instrument to a different tune – meaning they don't agree politically – and so I wondered what will happen in the future. So I thought about all of this and came to the realisation that I had to make a film that included all of this, especially as I'd always been inhabited by the question of what must we do, what should we do, once this regime is no longer there? This is the kind of film you typically make once a regime is over, once a dictator is no longer there, when it's time to practically question, what do you do with the remnants of a certain regime?

“Do we behave like them, thereby, allowing for the cycle of violence to continue, or do we behave differently to find a new road ahead? So it was through these experiences and these reflections that I achieved the idea for the film and made it.”

Jafar Panahi with Locarno's artistic director Giona A Nazzaro Photo: Courtesy of Locarno Film Festival/Ti-Press

Asked whether Israel’s attacks on Iran had made any difference in the civil society of the country, Panahi said: “You know, dictators are always looking for wars and catastrophe or for others to cause catastrophes for them, for their country because when they’re faced with a catastrophe they exert even more pressure on their own people. Now we see that there have been a greater number of executions, censorship has become more severe, there are greater problems. This is not just a recent occurrence but a more general occurrence and not only in Iran, in dictatorships generally speaking.”

Speaking about Iran’s notorious Evin prison, where he was held for about seven months between 2022 and 23, he said: “When a regime kicks an artist into prison, it's as if they are gifting him with a subject, with a script, with an idea. I always say I didn't make this film myself. The Islamic Republic made it by putting me in prison, because if I hadn't spent that time in prison, I might not have had these ideas. In fact, it was in prison that I met the person who helped me write the script. I was very lucky because he happened to be out of prison while I was working on the film and he provided great help, especially with dialogue that I really needed him to to look at and he was extremely helpful.

“Unfortunately, a few months later he was chucked into prison once again and unfortunately this person has spent one third of his life in prison.According to his sentence, he must spend another at least eight or nine months in prison, we're still waiting for his sentence to be completed. That is, of course, unless they can think up a new crime to accuse him of and therefore give him another sentence.

“It really is absurd. What he has said is that there are these insects in prison, which there are. They bit me so badly that I couldn't sleep for three months myself. He is being condemned to eight months in prison simply for recounting this truth. They’re really just looking for any excuse, any new crime to sentence you with to get you to spend time in prison.”

It Was Just An Accident will be released by MUBI in the UK on December 5.