It Was Just An Accident

I saw It Was Just An Accident, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes this year, as the second movie in my double feature at the Broadway yesterday and it is brilliant!  After a man wearing a prosthetic leg hits and kills a dog while driving late at night, he brings his damaged car to a factory where Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) is working to ask for help.  Vahid hears the distinct squeaking sound of the man's leg as he walks and immediately recognizes him as Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi), the sadistic guard who tormented him in an Iranian prison.  The next day he follows him in a borrowed van, kidnaps him, and attempts to bury him alive in the desert but he isn't certain that he has the right man because he was blindfolded the whole time he was in prison.  In order to make a correct identification, he locates other former prisoners, including Shiva (Mariam Afshari), a photographer, Golrokh (Hadis Pakbaten), a bride having her wedding portraits taken with her fiance Ali (Majid Panahi), and Hamid (Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr), Shiva's volatile former partner, for confirmation.  Hamid eventually identifies him but chaos ensues (which provides a bit of comic relief in this tension-filled drama) as they argue over what to do.  Hamid advocates for killing him immediately, Shiva does not want to become like him by resorting to violence, Vahid wants him to confess and be judged before they take action, and Goli is too traumatized by seeing him again to make a rational decision.  This ultimately leads to a powerful confrontation between Eghbal and his captors with an ending that gave me chills.  Writer/Director Jafar Panahi was himself once a political prisoner who was mistreated by his captors and you can definitely feel the weight of his own moral dilemma about justice and revenge in the disparate reactions of his characters.  I found it to be incredibly thought-provoking and moving but also really funny as their journey to retribution becomes increasingly more absurd (which is an interesting commentary on taking matters of this nature into your own hands).  All of the performances, from a largely unknown cast, are riveting but I was particularly struck by Afshari's portrayal of Shiva's character arc as a woman who simply wants to move on with her life but finds that she can't (her rage-filled monologue gave me goosebumps).  This is one of the best movies I’ve seen this year and I highly recommend it.