At great, constant risk, Jafar Panahi’s body of work has culminated into a masterpiece resonating beyond the borders of Iran and into the authoritarian nightmares happening across the globe.
It Was Just an Accident
Starring Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr, Delnaz Najafi, Afssaneh Najmabadi, and Georges Hashemzadeh
Directed by Jafar Panahi
Runtime: 1 hour, 44 mins
Synopsis
When a family’s car breaks down in front of his shop, Vahid (Mobasseri) conspires to kidnap and kill the father (Azizi), convinced that he’s a former torturer under the Iranian regime. However, as doubt of the man’s identity seeps in, Vahid will need the help of fellow political prisoners to determine the truth.
A Slow, Subtle Start
Not that I would have yelled during this movie (well, okay, I have done it before), but there was certainly a moment where Vahid (Mobasseri) was perplexing me, almost to the point of vexation. In the first few scenes, we see him stalk a seemingly innocent man and begin to bury him in the desert before we finally get enough context to understand why he would do such an act. Vahid believes this is the man who tortured him during his time as a political prisoner and feels justified in ending his life. No sooner do we learn this context and begin the process of deciding how we feel about this, his prisoner proclaims his innocence and gives compelling evidence to back up his claim.
Credit: Neon
As an audience, you’re immediately thrown into a tailspin of questions. The same doubt that creeps into Vahid’s mind seeps into the viewer’s experience as well.
Maybe he’s wrong? Did Vahid find the right man?
Is this the man who mentally and physically abused him as an unrightful prisoner for years?
And if not, what will he do next? Will he kill him to keep quiet?
These questions and more lie at the center of Panahi’s story of revenge, as it questions who’s allowed to seek revenge, how far are you allowed to go, and what does it say about the person seeking that revenge.
Panahi doesn’t give a clear-cut answer, but every person drawn into Vahid’s orbit ends up representing or advocating for different perspectives regarding revenge.
Political Avengers
As Vahid debates what to do with his prisoner, he needs help confirming his identity, eventually enlisting the help of photographer / journalist Shiva (Afshari), the soon-to-be newlyweds in Goli (Pakbaten) and Ali (Panahi), and Shiva’s former husband, the hot-headed Hamid (Elyasmehr). As each character joins Vahid’s mission, we get more and more insight into the methods of torture they have all experienced. And, like Vahid’s rash decision to capture and potentially bury his prisoner, each character initially reacts violently to the news that their former captor may be within their grasp. How each character reacts to Vahid’s doubt allows each actor to have an opportunity to shine and live in complexity.
Credit: Neon
For Shiva, she’s reluctant to even hear Vahid out, but her curiosity eventually gets the better of her, drawing her in and helping Vahid find the right people to identify their captor. Shiva tends to balance out the entire group, pushing when needed and reigning people in when they have gone too far.
For Goli and Ali, the answer pulls on threads of their future marriage together, as Goli had been a prisoner while Ali was presumably free. While Ali certainly has compassion for how his future wife was humiliated and taken advantage of, he has less skin in the game compared to the rest. Since Ali didn’t experience the same type of torture, he is free to focus on the future, less tied to the traumatic pains of the past like Goli and the others. Goli has to continuously convince her husband why this fight is necessary, why she couldn’t care less about the wedding until the matter has been handled. For her, they were trying to move on with their lives, and this predicament throws her back into the past, completely eroding part of the life she had been working towards.
Hamid may be the simplest to understand of the group, but his stance still provides no clear-cut answers. As the firebrand, most volatile group member, Hamid’s viewpoints are straightforward, black and white answers regarding their prisoner. Our prisoner has harmed us, we have found him, and he should die, it’s as simple as that. This stance is a completely fair assessment of events, even as Shiva provides counters to Hamid and his determination to kill the prisoner, regardless to cover their tracks.
Tension In A Van
If you notice the van in the movie’s poster, it plays into the plot way more than you might expect. Once Vahid picks up Shiva, we spend the remaining runtime inside the van as he drives around the city, picking up new people and information, having forced stops at various places, and debating what to do with the prisoner crammed into his footlocker. This premise keeps the tension heightened because every stop or decision on the road could lead to them getting caught or potentially giving away too much information to their prisoner. The setup also provides opportunities for levity, which happens in the latter half as we’ve been on razor’s edge until that point.
Credit: Neon
Fellow reviewers have fondly called comparisons to Little Miss Sunshine (2006) and how the family’s journey in a broken Volkswagen van helped a family bond together through a series of interstate hijinks. That’s a completely fair comparison, though it should be noted that the way this works comedically is inverted. Little Miss Sunshine‘s premise is aimed to be funny throughout, with the ability to flip towards more dramatic and heavier tones on a dime, whereas Accident is a thriller that occasionally eases the tension with a comedic moment (using poking at regime and business corruption or the group’s internal dynamics).
Accident is never graphic; Panahi does the heavy lifting, tackling difficult situations through the character’s reactions or conversations with one another. Combined with the brief moments of levity, the result allows the audience to have much-needed rests near the final moments, helping us bond with this motley crew even if we’re still unsure how far they may take their revenge.
*Note: While I don’t know this for sure, knowing that the movie was shot in secret in Iran, keeping their shoot on the move may have helped them avoid the authorities. So it works damn well as a plot element and practical choice to keep making movies directly in opposition to the regime.
The Final Scene
I won’t spoil anything here, but this moment alone should put the film into Oscar contention. It had me and my fellow audience members leaning forward into our seats, wondering if there would be any more resolution as the credits began to roll; it was a devastating gut punch that didn’t even have to show anything. It’s a perfect example of how setting up sound cues earlier in a film can pay dividends later. When we first hear this unassuming, squeaky noise in the movie’s establishing scenes, we couldn’t have imagined how sinister and foreboding it would turn into. Panahi effectively uses sound as a traumatic cue, helping the audience feel, even for a brief moment, the kind of dread that he and other Iranian political prisoners have felt and continue to feel at the hands of their oppressors. Panahi’s directorial mastery is on display throughout the entire film, but it truly culminates in this one moment, connecting audiences to the immense terror created by the Iranian regime in the most palpable way possible.
Conclusion / Recommendation
It Was Just an Accident works as a masterpiece political thriller without being bogged down by legalese or larger constructs, focusing instead on how real humans would deal with the opportunity to enact revenge. As much as one can enjoy grappling with tense, humanitarian issues, Accident is a pleasant experience, knowing when to breathe or crank the tension back up, as a testament to Panahi’s mastery and ascendance as a director, leaving the audience with thoughts that won’t resolve any time soon.
Accident is currently in limited runs across the country, and while it may release again closer to award season, I highly recommend you make time to see it this weekend and show support for this amazing accomplishment.
Score: 10 out of 10
- The Van Crew- 10
- Panahi has assembled a top-notch cast that works well together to sell the intensity and break the energy when needed.
- A Chilling, Impactful Plot- 10
- While using a van may have been intentional to avoid detection, this one plot device serves to drive the action towards an incredible conclusion and keeps the action claustrophobic at times.
- A Filming Nightmare- 10
- Filmed under the bright sun and utter darkness, Accident weaves through a variety of small settings, either gas stations, desert graveyards, or pitch black rendezvous lit only by car tail lights, all woven together by cinematographer Amin Jafari.
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