By contrast to my immediately preceding experience with Exit 8, Jafar Panahi’s newest was, without question, the best film of the first day and perhaps the best film I’ve seen all year. The “accident” in question is when a dog is struck in the middle of the road by Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi) who is driving home with his wife and daughter in the middle of the evening. Once realizing his engine is likely kaput, he takes the car to a warehouse nearby. While he waits, one of the mechanics, Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri), hears a familiar squeaking sound coming from Eghbal’s gait.
It’s then that Vahid begins to suspect that this stranger may be the man who tortured him many years prior. This supposition leads to Vahid making a sudden decision that, while swift, is also laced with doubt. “Is this really the man who made my life hell for so long?” he wonders. It’s a question that loops in other former prisoners—victims of the Iranian regime—a photographer who is just now getting her life back in order (Mariam Afshari), a bride-to-be (Hadis Pakbaten) with her groom in tow (Majid Panahi), and a volatile pal of theirs (Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr) who, each in turn, make their own judgment regarding the identity of this man and their experiences while imprisoned.
The idea of discussing It Was Just An Accident without focusing on the real-life experiences of its director is folly. Panahi’s first-hand experience in dealing with the Regime and his multiple imprisonments (the most recent tied to a hunger strike) provides a tactile resonance that few filmmakers could adequately match. When Panahi asks his audience, in the broadest possible terms, if those who have critically harmed us are worthy of either revenge or a form of grace, it’s a query that comes from the most direct possible perspective.
I think I’m making this sound like an “eat your vegetables” kind of movie. If so, apologies are due because Panahi’s latest is the kind of thriller that occupies a specific kind of rarefied air. Comparisons to neo-western classics like No Country for Old Men and Hell or High Water are fully warranted as It Was Just An Accident is the kind of engrossing thriller that despite its clear political undercurrent is simply an engrossing story that’s exceptionally well told. As each character becomes aware of Vahid’s scheme, we learn more about them and how their lives were interrupted by their imprisonments and mistreatment. This is all done in such a sharp way, not requiring the use of flashbacks but also not relegating us as viewers to an endless loop of “tell, tell, tell.” Panahi puts on a clinic of how to write expository dialogue that gives you just enough information, but still allows his cast to be fully-formed characters. I was awe-struck, and remain even more so in retrospect.
Okay, I’m still making this sound like a movie guy’s movie. I’ll boil this down really simply: it’s both gripping and shockingly funny in turn. The inherent ridiculousness of having a man knocked out in someone’s trunk while a bride and groom argue about what to do with him has its own farcical value, on top of the more short-fused member of the quintet chaotically becoming one of the most memorable characters of the entire festival circuit, but in addition, at every turn external forces come knocking and it’s here where viewers get a chance to witness just how corrupt all levels of Iranian commerce seem to be. Everyone is asking for a tip of some kind to keep their mouths shut about what they may or may not have seen, including nurses at the hospital. It’s an indictment of a system deeply in need of real reform but also patently ridiculous to the point where it’s impossible not to find the humor in it.
But before the credits roll, it all takes such an astonishing turn as to rip your breath away. I cannot express how much I loved this movie, an effort with the political firepower of the most radical of filmmakers while wrapped in a premise that would be worthy of an Elmore Leonard bestseller. Don’t miss it.