Director Jafar Panahi is back with what is likely his most personal film. It Was Just an Accident takes the concept of a revenge movie and turns it on its head with signature neorealism twists.
The scenario starts with a man visiting an auto mechanic named Vahid after hitting a dog on the road. The man’s voice and limp make Vahid believe that this is the man who tortured him in an Iranian prison. Vahid doesn’t know for sure because he was blindfolded during every instance.
After kidnapping the man and accusing him of being Eghbal the torturer, he chooses to knock him out and throw him into the back of his van, because he can’t kill Eghbal until he’s sure it’s actually him. Vahid Mobaserri delivers a great performance as Vahid. He does a great job of showing how his imprisonment and torture have left deep scars that lead him to vengeance inorder to get closure.
He plans to take the man he believes to be Eghbal to other prisoners who were tortured and see if they can confirm his identity. A woman named Shiva says that the man smells like Eghbal, but is also not 100 percent sure, so she and Vahid go on to find another ex-prisoner to help.
A surprising aspect of the film is the humor. Panahi has managed to deliver a surprising amount of laughs that naturally occur from the sheer absurdity of the events in the plot.
A bunch of people driving around with a kidnapped person in a van as they try to figure out if they even have the right guy could also be the premise of a comedy. The van just keeps filling up with more people as Vahid is still unable to verify that the man is indeed Eghbal. At one point, another man named Hamid claims that he’s sure it’s Eghbal because he feels a part of his leg and says it’s an exact match. (It’s a lot funnier than I expected.)
Another pleasing accept that sells the story is that every character who wants revenge on Eghbal is believable. These are people who have tried to move on with their lives despite their trauma. They’re not typical badasses who have trained for years for their moment of revenge. With Vahid, you see a normal person who got tunnel vision as soon as he thought he had a chance for revenge.
Jafar Panahi’s own life experience has a clear influence on these characters. He was censored and imprisoned multiple times for speaking out against the Iranian government. This film is an exploration of what the desire for revenge can do to someone, as well as the difficulty and risk of showing mercy to those who wronged you. Panahi does this with flair and a deft hand.
It Was Just an Accident is easy to recommend. It is food for the film fan’s soul: a surprisingly varied offering from a director with a passioned vision and the knowhow to bring it to life at its full potential.
Author Bio:
Ulises Duenas is a senior writer and film critic at Highbrow Magazine.
For Highbrow Magazine