One of the biggest stories at the Cannes Film Festival this year is the return of Iranian director Jafar Panahi. It’s not simply that he has a new film. He’s been making movies for the past three decades, ever since his 1995 debut The White Balloon won the Camera d’Or for Best First Film in Cannes. Since that time, he has fallen foul of the Iranian authorities for his work. Imprisoned twice, he is officially banned from making movies or even giving interviews.
So for Panahi to arrive in Cannes with his new film, It Was Just an Accident, which is in competition, is something of a coup. Especially when you take a look at the film, a morality tale about vengeance that simmers with anger.
It begins with a man (Ebrahim Azizi) driving his wife and daughter when they have an accident, killing an animal. This roadkill leads the man into the path of Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri), who works at a garage. Immediately Vahid is unsettled, believing he knows this man from the past. In his eyes, this is Eghbal the Peg Leg, also known as The Gimp, a one-legged state interrogator who was responsible for the brutal torture of Vahid and many others.
He kidnaps Eghbal and takes him to the desert where he plans to bury him alive, despite the man’s protests that he is not who Vahid thinks he is. Having second thoughts, Vahid decides to confirm his identity, tying him up inside a trunk in the back of his van. His enquiries lead him to Shiva (Maryam Afshari). She is a photographer on an assignment snapping a bride Golrokh (Hadis Pakbaten) and a groom (Majid Panahi, the director’s nephew). All three have crossed paths with Eghbal in the past.
A further figure is thrown into the mix, the hot-headed Hamid (Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr), who appears desperate to pull the trigger on this captive. “We’re at war,” he yells. “If you don’t kill, you’ll be killed.” In a slightly convenient narrative twist, the group decide to drug Eghbal and put earplugs in his ears, so he can’t identity them. We never see this and there’s no real indication of how they managed that. But let’s allow Panahi this one moment of artistic licence.
As much as the film’s writer-director stokes the tension, he’s not afraid to punctuate the narrative with moments of humour. These include two security guards who witness a ruckus in Vahid’s van, then happily accept a bribe, with one even producing a remote point-of-sale terminal to swipe Vahid’s credit card (a piece of plastic that takes a serious hit throughout this story).
The final act, however, is both surprising and hard to watch, as Eghbal – if indeed that’s who it is – is confronted by his kidnappers. With the scene bathed in blood red, it’ll leave you on the edge of your seat. Even more impressive are the performances. Only Azizi, who plays Eghbal, is a professional actor, but Panahi draws powerful turns from all of the cast, especially Afshari, who dominates the final scenes.
A film that rages against the Iranian state, it’s almost impossible to separate the creator from the creation here. Panahi’s anger is laid out for all to see, as he takes a sledgehammer to the oppressive regimes he has encountered. There’s even a reference to ISIS, and how they kill innocent people, reasoning that those who have committed no crime will go to Heaven.
Whatever the case, if this wins Cannes’ Palme d’Or, it would be no accident.
