It Was Just an Accident

Bluesky

Almost 20 years after Offside (2006), Jafar Panahi returns to conventional, narrative filmmaking. In the meanwhile, he has been imprisoned, put under house arrest and banned from filmmaking by the oppressive Iranian regime. Therefore, the former assistant to Abbas Kiarostami and dissident filmmaker has had to adapt his style and film language several times, shooting covertly and appearing in front of the camera for his films or “non-films”.

It Was Just an Accident premiered at Cannes to a standing ovation even before the beginning of the film – the reason was that Panahi was present, meaning that he had managed to get out of Iran. His film went on to win the Palme d’Or, making Panahi only the fourth filmmaker to triumph at all of the “Big Three” film festivals, after Henri-Georges Clouzot, Michelangelo Antonioni and Robert Altman. Previously, Panahi won at Venice with The Circle (2000) and at Berlinale with Taxi (2013). It Was Just an Accident has continued its tour of festivals and we caught it at Sarajevo.

Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi) is driving his daughter and his pregnant wife in his car. At one point, he hits a dog that runs into the road, which causes some kind of malfunction. As a passer-by offers help, his colleague from the garage, Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) starts acting increasingly weird. As it turns out, the mere presence of Eghbal, and especially the squeaky sound his prosthetic leg makes, triggers Vahid to act in a manic, or even paranoid fashion.

This culminates the next day when, spotting Eghbal on the street, Vahid knocks him out, kidnaps him and even makes him dig his own grave. The reason – revenge, as Vahid recognises Eghbal as the most diligent amongst his torturers from the period he spent behind the bars as a syndicalist protester and a political prisoner. Eghbal claims it is a case of mistaken identity, since he has only recently lost his leg. That is enough for Vahid to start having second thoughts, so he tries to enlist the help from his prison buddy who points him to other prisoners who suffered under Eghbal’s terror.

A group forms between Vahid, a seemingly sturdy wedding photographer Shiva (Mariam Afshari), a bride Goli (Hadis Pakbaten), a groom Ali (Majid Panahi) – who was not imprisoned, but wants to protect his wife to be at any cost – and finally, the wild-card, vengeance-bound Hamid (Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr). The question of what to do with their prisoner and theoretical ex-captor has a number of practical and ethical implications.

Panahi’s style differs a bit from that he adopted in recent works, but some improvisation still echoes through It Was Just An Accident. Operated by Amin Jafari, the camera represents the viewers’ point of view, putting them in the position of eye witnesses. The takes are usually long and static, but every cut and move is justified for the purpose of dramaturgy. That often puts the ensemble of actors all in the same frame, which cuts their options to (re-)act naturally, but the Iranian style of acting is usually way more expressive, even borderline theatrical, at least from the Western point of view.

However, the story itself and the genre framing – alongside ethical drama and a cry for help, we get to see a lot of satire and even dark humour, since the characters often have to bribe the officials or the clerks to continue with their endeavour – is more than enough to keep viewers engaged for as long as it takes. It Was Just an Accident is certainly one of Jafar Panahi’s most accessible and communicative films, which is a very good compensation for appearing less experimental and innovative. It can and will pass on the message.

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