Director – Jafar Panahi – 2025 – Iran, France, Luxembourg – Cert. 12a – 105m
*****
When a man hits an animal driving on country roads late at night, unforeseen consequences ensue – out in UK cinemas on Friday, December 5th
It’s late at night and the family are returning by car. Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi), who is driving, and his wife (Afssaneh Najmabadi) keep their small daughter (Delnaz Najafi) amused with raucous, Iranian dance music. Then there’s a bang as the car hits something. Dad stops, gets out and finds he’s hit an animal. “Animals just walk onto these roads,” he explains to his traumatised daughter. The mother tries to pacify the child, saying this happens all the time and is nothing to worry about. The little girl is upset; she was enjoying the loud music before, but now she isn’t. At her request, dad turns it off. A sombre mood settles over the car.
The vehicle isn’t right since the collision, so dad takes it to a garage for them to have a look at it. One of the mechanics Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) spots him, keeps out of sight, then borrows his boss’ van keys for a emergency to follow the departing vehicle. When it parks on a main street, trying not to be obvious and not keeping the van parked in the same place, he stops and starts it around both sides of a central reservation, eventually opening the door quickly striking the man as he walks past, bundling him into the back and driving off into the desert. Where he digs the man’s grave and starts to bury him alive.
However, Vahid has a problem. He thought he had found old Pegleg, as the former torturer in a prison into which Vahid was placed in the past was known to the inmates, but it’s hard to be sure. This man too has a prosthetic leg, but claims he’s only had it recently. Vahid wants a second opinion, so visits his trusted friend Salah (Georges Hashemzadeh) who, it turns out, is in the same position.
Salah recommends Vahid talk to Shiva (Mariam Afshari). He tracks her down on a busy day at work – she takes photos of couples prior to their weddings, and is currently shooting Goli (Hadis Pakbaten) and Ali (Majid Panahi). Saying it’s a delicate matter and she needs to step outside, he has to wait for a break in her schedule before explaining the situation and the body in the van requiring identification. She can’t help him directly though, because it’s hard to identify a prison employee when you were blindfolded much of the time.
It turns out that Goli too was tormented in prison by this man; she recounts to her husband-to-be a particularly harrowing episode involving sexual and mental abuse, saying she had planned to tell him but hadn’t yet found the right moment. As the situation grows ever more complicated, and they start driving the van around trying to work out what to do, Shiva’s partner Hamid (Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr) also becomes involved.
Further confusion arises when the unconscious man’s phone rings and it’s his wife about to give birth, so the group decide to take her to the hospital. This causes administrative problems since, under Iranian law, the husband has to be present (which given his current incapacitation isn’t likely to happen). On top of that, someone has to pay for the hospital treatment.
Panahi’s yarn has a lot of scenes of people explaining at great length what this man did or had done to them in prison, or articulating at equally great length their feelings about him and what should be done about him. Yet, what they’re talking about clearly runs so deep that the effect of their discussions and rants are spellbinding. Iran has been a much troubled country over the last half century or so, something which comes over very strongly. Altogether, a remarkable movie.
It Was Just An Accident is out in cinemas in the UK on Friday, December 5th.
Trailer: