Is It Was Just an Accident, a thriller written and directed by Jafar Panahi and secretly filmed in Iran, merely a satirical pamphlet against Tehran?
In Iran, a father whose car has broken down is helped in the middle of the night at a garage. Vahid, an employee of the garage, is alarmed by the noise made by the customer’s prosthetic leg. Vahid is sure that the man is Eghbal, who tortured him while he was a political prisoner. The next day, Vahid follows his target and kidnaps him in the middle of a Tehran street with his van. Vahid then turns to friends and other former victims to complete the identification of this man.
The interrogation of a former torturer by his victims
Each summoned character is ripped from their reality and forced to confront their memories of torture in prison or of a loved one. These characters include the mechanic, the wedding photographer, the newlyweds, the angry outsider, and the bookseller.
At times, Eghbal will try to gain the upper hand over his interrogators. But in this cruel game, fear quickly shifts sides. Eghbal’s life is in the hands of his former playthings, who will become, depending on the circumstances, raving madmen, desperate men, or vigilantes. Will those left behind by the repression end up turning the Iranian regime’s weapons against itself?
It Was Just An Accident is a tragicomic judicial saga that foreshadows a purge without justice
This kind of judicial stroll will go off the rails day and night. The interrogators’ efforts, frustrated by the lack of information and the alleged culprit’s immobility, form a striking contrast where terror rubs shoulders with drama and tragicomedy.
Thus, Vahid becomes the director of the film. The vehicle in which he locks Eghbal is the theater stage. The car door opens and closes like a curtain. Shiva, the wedding photographer and Vahid’s female alter ego, accompanies him in this court of the absurd.
Eghbal is the monster that emerges from a crate at the back of a truck. The characters take turns dancing with him. He is the demon ex machina, the cold monster who sets in motion the possibility of both revenge and justice.
Will the “beast” be buried, or will it remain inside the van indefinitely, like an embalmed body?
This theater of the absurd offers a glimpse into what purges might resemble following the fall of the Iranian regime.
Released in 2025
Running time: 104 minutes
Photo credits © Jafar Panahi Film Production , Bidibul Productions, Les Films Pelléas, Pio & Co, Arte France Cinéma
