"Late in Jafar Panahi's Oscar-nominated film, It Was Just an Accident, comes a confrontation. An Iranian woman looks into the face of a sadistic prison official and taunts, "You think this country belongs to you?" Panahi, who wrote and directed the film, describes it as an artificial fast-forward, set in a time when the violence has died down, the prisoners have been released, life has returned to normal, and the urgent open question is to forgive or to take revenge."
"Of course, that time still feels far away. The Iranian regime has recently killed thousands of protesters and sentenced even moderate dissenters to long prison sentences. Panahi's co-writer Mehdi Mahmoudian was recently jailed after signing a letter objecting to the crackdowns. Panahi, who also signed the letter and has been touring the United States to promote his film, has been sentenced to one year in prison in absentia. His lawyer has said they plan to appeal the sentence. Still, he insists that as soon as Oscar season is over, he will head back home."
"Like many of Panahi's other films, this one is improbably funny. The action mostly consists of four misfits driving around Tehran fighting about what to do with the man they've kidnapped, someone they believe to be their torturer. Also like his other films, he shot it in secret, with limited takes, natural lighting, and locations chosen to evade the authorities (nearly a third of the film is shot from inside a van). Panahi has been ducking censors long enough that he seems to have cracked the code of how to make rich, sarcastic, brutally critical movies despite the regime's relentless repression. And in the case of It Was Just an Accident, he made a movie that offers empathy even to the torturer."
Jafar Panahi wrote and directed It Was Just an Accident, which culminates in a confrontation where an Iranian woman taunts a sadistic prison official, asking, "You think this country belongs to you?" Panahi frames the film as an artificial fast-forward set after violence has subsided, when the urgent question becomes whether to forgive or to take revenge. The Iranian regime has recently killed thousands of protesters and imprisoned dissenters; Panahi's co-writer was jailed and Panahi received a one-year sentence in absentia. The film combines dark humor and a plot about four misfits who kidnap a suspected torturer, and it was shot secretly with limited takes, natural lighting, and van-based locations to evade censors while extending empathy even to the torturer.
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