RIGA IFF: Tas bija tikai negadījums

Jafar Panahi
It Was Just an Accident
It Was Just an Accident
IR, FR, LU
2025, 105’, fa
Age 16+

 

The longest trip home – it began with an accident destined to set off a chain of events that's both surreally comical and utterly chilling. In the late hours of the night, Eghbal – travelling with his wife and daughter – accidentally runs over a dog and damages the car engine. In search of a helping hand, the family encounters a former political prisoner, Vahid, who recognises the sound of Eghbal’s prosthetic limb and claims Eghbal was once his torturer. The man cannot recall the face or appearance of his abuser – yet memory proves stubborn and prompts action. As they return home, the family has no idea that the unfortunate incident with the poor dog will alter all their lives…

 

The pioneer of Iranian film, dissident Panahi through his four decades of creative work has always reminded us that film is a form of manipulation that can be as dramatic as it is comic. Also his latest piece – recently awarded the Palme d’Or at Cannes – merges the personal with the political, historical memory with the present, and a macabre hymn to absurdity with the best Hitchcockian strokes. In recent years, making films under the constraints of government arrest and a travel ban, and especially in his most recent oeuvre No Bears (2022) Panahi has played around with the very form of filmmaking and what ultimately makes it into the frame. The film is rooted in Panahi’s experience while imprisoned, and upon receiving the award in Cannes after a 22-year absence, he said: “What matters most right now is our country and the freedom of our country”.