It Was Just An Accident (12A)

(Subtitled)

Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or-winner is a finely calibrated thriller exploring the high price of revenge on a potentially evil man.

A man (Ebrahim Azizi) is driving at night with his pregnant wife and daughter in the car and suffers the time-old shock-premise of hitting something in the darkness: a dog. This simple accident causes his car to break down, and he finds himself pulling over at a garage belonging to Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri).

The driver has a disability too, a limp, and Vahid is stunned, scared and angry to realise that he knows this man; and it sets in motion bizarre a series of events that reunites a disparate cohort of Vahid’s acquaintances who have all suffered at the hands of the state.

It’s a beautifully executed film, one of Panahi’s most powerful, gripping and generous. As the clock ticks on and the van fills up with folks from all walks of life who also want their pound of flesh, the messiness of life makes itself felt and the simple task at hand becomes more complex as a broader picture of their captor emerges.