New Leg, Who Dis?

Film: It Was Just an Accident ( Yek tasādof-e sāde; Un simple accident )
Format: Streaming video from Hulu Plus on various players.

One of my favorite things to do, a “flex” as the kids would say, is to go to a dive bar, sit at the bar with a beer, and read a book. It’s one of the best ways to demonstrate to the people around you that you absolutely don’t care a bit about their opinion. I do this with a movie now and then too. Last night, the night of the midterm elections, literally nothing felt more American than sitting at a bar watching the first half of Oscar nominee It Was Just an Accident, a Persian film, on my phone (and if you like, you can call it Yek tasādof-e sāde or Un simple accident). What better choice of free expression could there be than watching a film by an award-winning filmmaker based in a country we are currently bombing?

This is even more the case when you realize that It Was Just an Accident is a movie about oppression and fighting back against it. This is a film and a story that has a surprising amount in common with Marathon Man, although it’s a bit more personal and a bit more comedic. This is not a movie that anyone would call “funny” in any way—it’s funny in a sardonic way, funny so that you don’t scream at it. The man, terrified, says that it’s a case of mistaken identity. He lost his leg recently, and invites Vahid to look at the scars to see how recent they are. So, Vahid drugs him and visits his friend Salar (Georges Hashemzadeh) at a bookshop. Salar refuses to help, but tells Vahid to find Shiva (Mariam Afshari), who was also tortured by Eqbal. Shiva is a wedding photographer shooting the wedding of Goli (Hadis Pakbaten) and Ali (Majid Panahi); it turns out that Goli was also one of Eqbal’s victims. Still unsure of his identity, the group seeks out Hamid (Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr), Shiva’s former partner, another victim and one who is convinced that the man in question is Eqbal and wants immediate revenge.

Through all of this, we eventually discover that the man’s wife is about to give birth and has collapsed, putting the group in a real quandary—does the unborn child deserve to suffer and possibly die because of the crimes of the father? And what if this isn’t actually Eqbal?

Jafar Panahi is a master storyteller, and It Was Just an Accident is simply more evidence of that fact. This is a story where everything spins slowly out of control but in a way that feels accurate and even predictable. Every moment of the film, the people involved want things to end, but everything that happens draws them in further, makes things more complicated, puts them more and more in a position where they can’t go back to normal.

A part of the genius of Panahi is also that the actors he uses aren’t people who are famous actors, who look like Hollywood royalty. With the exception of Ebrahim Azizi, who plays the kidnapped man, most of these actors have only been in one or two films before, and all of those films were also made by Panahi. They look like real people—they look normal and flawed and average, which makes the entire story feel that much more visceral and real.

Film is a medium that speaks to the past, the present, and the future. It Was Just an Accident is a film that is clearly looking at the Iranian regime that has long been the dragon that Panahi has been fighting. This is the regime, after all, that put him in prison and banned him from making films for a time. He’s also talking in part about the present—the torture and oppression that still occurs around the world. This is also a film that will have a great deal of relevance (one hopes) in a couple of years when the current American administration is out of power and we can seriously address the idea of trials for war crimes and other crimes against humanity by ICE and others.

Like all films of this type that really want to have something to say, It Was Just an Accident doesn’t offer any real answers, just questions that are not always easy to answer.

Why to watch It Was Just an Accident: Panahi is a master filmmaker, and this is more evidence of the same.
Why not to watch: It’s aggravating.