It is capitalist corruption at its most heinous.
It is caliphate corruption at its most hypocritical.
Everyone’s hand is out – from cops to nurses.
It’s no accident that Iran is in trouble and Jafar Panahi’s latest film, IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT shows just how deep that trouble is.
IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT is a rambunctious, chaotic frenzied film
that engages with complex ideas about the uncertainty of the truth and the choice between revenge and mercy. It is also an indictment of the threadbare moral regime of this neanderthal theocracy.
IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT starts with a happy family returning from a function when their car breaks down. Vahid, an unassuming mechanic, strongly suspects the driver to be his former sadistic jailhouse captor.
In a fit of unbridled irresponsibility, Vahid kidnaps his suspected torturer and drives around town in his van gathering several former prisoners, all abused by that same captor, to try and confirm the man’s identity.
As the bickering group drives around Tehran with the captive, thoughts are divided on how far to take matters into their own hands with their presumed tormentor. Revenge or forgiveness?
In IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT, these moral hares chase each other round and round, deciphering doubt and quizzing the quality of mercy, its quotient and quantity.
Nominated fort two Academy awards – Best International Feature and Best Screenplay – and unlikely to win either, IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT isn’t just a film, it’s an indictment.
