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Now Playing: ‘It Was Just an Accident’ – A remarkable thriller where past and present collide
By: Gordon Briggs
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I love movies about the past.
I don’t mean historical dramas; I mean those films where some trauma from the past breaks through and disrupts the present. It Was Just an Accident is such a film.
This is a timely story that blends elements of a political thriller and Iranian drama with odd touches of comedy. Better still, there’s an energy and immediacy to this movie that hooks the viewer from the beginning, driven by an intriguing premise about justice, revolution, and morality.
First, the premise. In Iran, a man named Vahid accidentally bumps into a man he believes to be his former torturer when he was a political prisoner. Filled with rage towards his tormentor, Vahid kidnaps the man with the intention of killing him. However, faced with this person who fiercely denies having been his tormentor, doubt begins to set in. Is this really the man who tortured Vahid all those years ago?
That premise alone would make for a compelling movie. The interaction between a former victim and a man who could be his former tormentor is ripe with themes of justice and trauma. But Vahid is not sure if his prisoner is guilty or not because he was blindfolded during his captivity. The only way to resolve his doubts is to seek out his fellow prisoners, who are now occupying ordinary jobs, and see if they can confirm his identity.
What follows is a sometimes disturbing, sometimes funny 24 hours. That sense of uncertainty about the prisoner’s guilt is key to the film’s tension. Specifically, the story blurs the lines between justice and injustice, forcing viewers to confront difficult moral questions about revenge and mercy.
Such a topic could make for a maudlin award season drama. Thankfully, the film effectively swings from gritty psychological thriller to dark comedy without missing a beat. One of the film’s many qualities is its contrast between everyday life in the city and the traumas of the past.
As personal traumas and former revolutionaries begin to pile up in Vahid’s single van, certain moments take on a farcical quality. Example: two of its characters are even about to get married when their wedding photo shoot is interrupted by Vahid, but they get entwined in the effort to settle unfinished business from the past. Most of that credit should go to its cast. I never caught anyone “acting.”
The cast (including Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, and Hadis Pakbatan) created a “lived-in” atmosphere that made the characters feel like real people rather than actors.
The director of It Was Just an Accident is the renowned, often-imprisoned Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who created this acclaimed thriller secretly in Iran in defiance of government censorship.
Even if you don’t fully grasp all the political context, you can still enjoy this movie for how it grapples with the messiness of morality, forgiveness, and justice, especially in our own country, when neighbors are asked to look at one another with suspicion. Rating: ★★★★