It Was Just an Accident

How do you hit the establishment in the gut without even brushing against its hair? Ask Jafar Panahi and he might have the answer. His filmmaking legacy and long-standing battle with the Iranian state show that he is one of the bravest filmmakers alive. His Palm d’Or–winning film It Was Just An Accident is a furious work, yet laced with sardonic commentary on a system that is corrupt, greedy, immoral and inhumane.

On paper, It Was Just an Accident bears the blueprint of Panahi’s work where complexity arises from an innocuous incident. A regular pitstop proves to be pivotal. It turns out that the onlooker, Vahid (a wonderful Vahid Mobasseri), has a traumatic history of knowing the man looking for help. In fact, not only does he know him, but so do a lot of people — a wedding photographer, a woman about to get married, a man still traumatised with his past. Turns out, the man in question is an officer of the state who had tortured them when they were in jail. But here’s the catch: no one is really sure. They were blindfolded when they were imprisoned, and although the man (called Eghbal, played by Ebrahim Azizi) sounds and smells like him, and even has a limp, there is uncertainty.

It’s late in the night, and a family of three, a husband, wife, and their young daughter, is heading back home. Suddenly, there’s a sickening thump, and the car comes to a halt. The man gets out, looks at something on the ground, his face lit by the headlights. We do not see the exact shape or size of the roadkill, but the little girl mentions the death of a dog, the woman justifies it as an act of god, and this little interlude sets the tone for the rest of the film.