Chris Knipp
10-10-2025, 10:42 AM
http://www.chrisknipp.com/images/%20pahi.jpg
MOHAMED ALI ELYASMEHR, MAJID PANAHI, HADIS PAKBATEN IN IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT
JAFAR PANAHI: IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (2025)
Old complaints revisited
TRAILER (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF04v-ze2Yc)
This feature film from renowned and beleaguered Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi won the Palme d'Or at Cannes this year. In it a driver with a pregnant wife and young daughter has car trouble. The mechanic he seeks recognizes him as a prison torturer and captures him, then gathers fellow ex-prisoners to verify his identity and decide what to do with him. This tragicomic thriller takes Panahi's picture of the Iranian regime's victims to a new emotional intensity. The DIY feel, the story's own uncertainty of truth, only add to the memorably rough edges of this unique and remarkably visceral cry from the wilderness of dictatorship.
Not a very long film, this 24-hour span story has richness and layers. It's about the indelible memory of months or years of prison and torture, and it seems uniquely memorable for viewers. It begins when the at first nameless driver (Ebrahim Azizi) hits a dog. (Very typical of Iranian cinema for key action to be in a car.) HIs wife excuses him with "It was just an accident" and says it was God's will. Their young daughter is feisty (another Iranian film signature now--see Panahi's son Panah's Hit the Road) says this had nothing to do with God and "You killed a dog."
The driver finds a mechanic, Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) who offers to do the repair. But Vahid does a double-take. He follows the car and captures the driver and takes him out to the desert tied up, and buries him. But then he has second thoughts. When he notices the man has a wooden leg, Vahid thinks this is Eqbal, "Peg-Leg" or "the Gimp", the man who tortured him for three months, causing permanent kidney damage, which now has got him the nickname "Jug Head" because of how he holds his body with pain. But then, Vahid isn't sure. He goes looking for another former prisoner he knows for confirmation that this is who he thinks it is.
This is the bookseller Salar (George Hashemzadeh). Once the secret has been imparted, Salar thinks Vahid is crazy to get involved in a revenge scheme and will have nothing to do with it. He sends Vahihd to Shiva (Mariam Afshari). Vahid finds Shiva at work photographing a bride and groom. It turns out she is, as she says, just beginning to live a "normal" life now, and she does not welcome Vahid's project. But she does, to the end.
Along the way there is drama, comedy, and some gibes at the society, particularly its predilection for receiving bribes. Vahid winds up taking his prisoner's pregnant wife to the hospital, where she gives birth to a boy, and the nurses require a payoff or bribe and pastries. Vahids scrambles, and has been fronted by the feisty daughter as the pregnant woman's uncle. The father is "busy" - tied up and incarcerated in the "uncle's" van. Later, when he and his new cohorts are looking suspicious around the van, Vahid is menaced by security guards, and must bribe them to look the other way, but has no cash. We are amused - or appalled - to learn that the guards carry a credit card reader to take bribes with.
Do Shiva and the others she leads Vahid to identify the man for Vahid? All of them were blindfolded when he tortured them, so it's a bit difficult. They must recognize him by his voice, by his smell, and by the clicking sound of his wooden leg - things partly creepy, partly visceral.
Shiva is the name of a powerful Hindu god, who can be an avenger on behalf of justice. Shiva herself, with her mannish photographer outfit and her close-cropped salt-and-pepper hair, projects calm, maturity and composure. The bride and groom turn out to be of the fellowship too. The bride Goli (Hadis Pakbaten) has waves of nausea and is quite ill, doubtless an aftermath of torture. The groom is Ali (Majid Panahi). They go and get the tall and wild Hamid (Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr), who stages a disorderly fit right away. For this Vahid has come into town, with his prisoner tied up and in a closed compartment in the floor of his van.
Now they all go out to a remote desert whose little single tree reminds Hamid of Waiting for Godot.. There is a lot of disagreement about what to do, and Hamid, Goli, and Ali wind up leaving, but Shiva stays with Vahid. The uncertainty most of the way remains as to whether this man is Eqbal "Peg-Leg" whom Shiva calls "the Gimp" or not. Shiva insists this revenge plan of Vahid's is wrong in any case. This is not what they, who were peaceful demonstrators for freedom, would do. It is not who they are. Killing or torturing Peg-Leg, if that's who he is, would be taking on the methods of the enemy, of the dictators.
These questions are always on the table, while little funny, awkward things are also constantly happening. This film was shot in and around Tehran minimally, clandestinely, and on the run, without official permission: Panahi has after all been forbidden by the Iranian regime to make movies. The effect of these circumstances is to add an edge of intensity. One thing follows closely after another (this is in the editing too, and there are one or two very neat cutting tricks). The raw, artisanal texture makes it feel more real than a slicker production would. There is a high level of tension. When I spoke of layers I was thinking of: awakening of the traumatic memories of imprisonment and torture, some of which are recalled in specific detail; the present question whether this really is the man they all hate but never actually saw; the issue of what, if so, they now should do; the sense of how absurd, unnecessary, useless, and dangerous all this is.
For a while, we're living it with them. This film is a process, not an event. You had to be there? Well, we are there. That's what Panahi achieves. Is this a film for everyone? No. But it's a significant Iranian film with a wry satirical bite.
It Was Just an Accident یک تصادف ساده ("A Simple Coincidence"), 105 mins., premiered at Cannes May 2025 winning the Palme d'Or. It has been included in over two dozen other international festivals including Locarno, Telluride, Toronto, Mill Valley and the New York Film Festival, showing at the latter Oct. 2, 2025. Opening in US theaters starting Oct. 15. (San Francisco Oct. 24.) Metacritic (https://www.metacritic.com/movie/it-was-just-an-accident/critic-reviews/) rating: 89%.
MOHAMED ALI ELYASMEHR, MAJID PANAHI, HADIS PAKBATEN IN IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT
JAFAR PANAHI: IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (2025)
Old complaints revisited
TRAILER (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF04v-ze2Yc)
This feature film from renowned and beleaguered Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi won the Palme d'Or at Cannes this year. In it a driver with a pregnant wife and young daughter has car trouble. The mechanic he seeks recognizes him as a prison torturer and captures him, then gathers fellow ex-prisoners to verify his identity and decide what to do with him. This tragicomic thriller takes Panahi's picture of the Iranian regime's victims to a new emotional intensity. The DIY feel, the story's own uncertainty of truth, only add to the memorably rough edges of this unique and remarkably visceral cry from the wilderness of dictatorship.
Not a very long film, this 24-hour span story has richness and layers. It's about the indelible memory of months or years of prison and torture, and it seems uniquely memorable for viewers. It begins when the at first nameless driver (Ebrahim Azizi) hits a dog. (Very typical of Iranian cinema for key action to be in a car.) HIs wife excuses him with "It was just an accident" and says it was God's will. Their young daughter is feisty (another Iranian film signature now--see Panahi's son Panah's Hit the Road) says this had nothing to do with God and "You killed a dog."
The driver finds a mechanic, Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) who offers to do the repair. But Vahid does a double-take. He follows the car and captures the driver and takes him out to the desert tied up, and buries him. But then he has second thoughts. When he notices the man has a wooden leg, Vahid thinks this is Eqbal, "Peg-Leg" or "the Gimp", the man who tortured him for three months, causing permanent kidney damage, which now has got him the nickname "Jug Head" because of how he holds his body with pain. But then, Vahid isn't sure. He goes looking for another former prisoner he knows for confirmation that this is who he thinks it is.
This is the bookseller Salar (George Hashemzadeh). Once the secret has been imparted, Salar thinks Vahid is crazy to get involved in a revenge scheme and will have nothing to do with it. He sends Vahihd to Shiva (Mariam Afshari). Vahid finds Shiva at work photographing a bride and groom. It turns out she is, as she says, just beginning to live a "normal" life now, and she does not welcome Vahid's project. But she does, to the end.
Along the way there is drama, comedy, and some gibes at the society, particularly its predilection for receiving bribes. Vahid winds up taking his prisoner's pregnant wife to the hospital, where she gives birth to a boy, and the nurses require a payoff or bribe and pastries. Vahids scrambles, and has been fronted by the feisty daughter as the pregnant woman's uncle. The father is "busy" - tied up and incarcerated in the "uncle's" van. Later, when he and his new cohorts are looking suspicious around the van, Vahid is menaced by security guards, and must bribe them to look the other way, but has no cash. We are amused - or appalled - to learn that the guards carry a credit card reader to take bribes with.
Do Shiva and the others she leads Vahid to identify the man for Vahid? All of them were blindfolded when he tortured them, so it's a bit difficult. They must recognize him by his voice, by his smell, and by the clicking sound of his wooden leg - things partly creepy, partly visceral.
Shiva is the name of a powerful Hindu god, who can be an avenger on behalf of justice. Shiva herself, with her mannish photographer outfit and her close-cropped salt-and-pepper hair, projects calm, maturity and composure. The bride and groom turn out to be of the fellowship too. The bride Goli (Hadis Pakbaten) has waves of nausea and is quite ill, doubtless an aftermath of torture. The groom is Ali (Majid Panahi). They go and get the tall and wild Hamid (Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr), who stages a disorderly fit right away. For this Vahid has come into town, with his prisoner tied up and in a closed compartment in the floor of his van.
Now they all go out to a remote desert whose little single tree reminds Hamid of Waiting for Godot.. There is a lot of disagreement about what to do, and Hamid, Goli, and Ali wind up leaving, but Shiva stays with Vahid. The uncertainty most of the way remains as to whether this man is Eqbal "Peg-Leg" whom Shiva calls "the Gimp" or not. Shiva insists this revenge plan of Vahid's is wrong in any case. This is not what they, who were peaceful demonstrators for freedom, would do. It is not who they are. Killing or torturing Peg-Leg, if that's who he is, would be taking on the methods of the enemy, of the dictators.
These questions are always on the table, while little funny, awkward things are also constantly happening. This film was shot in and around Tehran minimally, clandestinely, and on the run, without official permission: Panahi has after all been forbidden by the Iranian regime to make movies. The effect of these circumstances is to add an edge of intensity. One thing follows closely after another (this is in the editing too, and there are one or two very neat cutting tricks). The raw, artisanal texture makes it feel more real than a slicker production would. There is a high level of tension. When I spoke of layers I was thinking of: awakening of the traumatic memories of imprisonment and torture, some of which are recalled in specific detail; the present question whether this really is the man they all hate but never actually saw; the issue of what, if so, they now should do; the sense of how absurd, unnecessary, useless, and dangerous all this is.
For a while, we're living it with them. This film is a process, not an event. You had to be there? Well, we are there. That's what Panahi achieves. Is this a film for everyone? No. But it's a significant Iranian film with a wry satirical bite.
It Was Just an Accident یک تصادف ساده ("A Simple Coincidence"), 105 mins., premiered at Cannes May 2025 winning the Palme d'Or. It has been included in over two dozen other international festivals including Locarno, Telluride, Toronto, Mill Valley and the New York Film Festival, showing at the latter Oct. 2, 2025. Opening in US theaters starting Oct. 15. (San Francisco Oct. 24.) Metacritic (https://www.metacritic.com/movie/it-was-just-an-accident/critic-reviews/) rating: 89%.