It Was Just an Accident: A Review - Profound Film for our Dark Times

****THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS ZERO SPOILERS!!****

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

My Recommendation: SEE. IT. NOW. - Unquestionably one of the very best films of the year.

It Was Just an Accident, written and directed by Jafar Panahi, tells the story of Vahid, a mechanic who struggles with a monumental decision about whether to confront his past or to move on from it.

The film, which is a French/Iranian production (in Farsi with English sub-titles) that is nominated for the Best International Feature Film award at this year’s Academy Awards, is currently streaming on Hulu, which is where I just watched it.

It Was Just an Accident was surreptitiously shot in Iran by acclaimed filmmaker Jafar Panahi – who, besides being imprisoned for his outspoken criticism of the Iranian government, was also banned from making films. Panahi shot the film essentially guerrilla style without any permits or permission...a bold and daring choice to make in authoritarian Iran.

Considering the current state of the world…which includes a brutal war between Israel and the U.S. against Iran, Panahi’s fantastic film takes on a much greater power and meaning than its simple, poignant and profound story already tells.

The film, which I will not spoil in any way shape or form so as to keep its impact preserved for those that haven’t yet seen it, is a relentlessly compelling and captivating meditation on the struggle between revenge and forgiveness, and about how difficult it is to fight against tyranny without becoming a tyrant and losing one’s soul.

It Was Just an Accident is one of the very best films of the year. It is a mesmerizing mixture of a morality tale, comedy caper, road picture and a thriller wrapped in an indictment of the Iranian regime and a plea to the humanity of all.

The film, which won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, starts slow but then builds and builds and builds to a truly phenomenal ending, gaining dramatic momentum with every scene and every performance.

That this movie could be so simple and yet spotlight such a complex moral and ethical conundrum and its consequences speaks to the brilliance of the script and of Panahi’s direction. The film could have been a Manichean manifesto that gives viewers what they want – but instead it is one of those movies that reveals a confounding complexity through its storytelling simplicity.

It Was Just an Accident was the third film I watched this week, the first two being The Secret Agent – a Brazilian film also nominated for Best International Feature, and Nuremberg, a big studio movie about the Nuremberg trials. I will review The Secret Agent and Nuremberg later this week. The one thing all three of these films have in common is that they address fascism and its toxic and corrosive effect on individuals and on society.

The most notable thing about fascist societies (whether they know they are fascist or not is irrelevant) is that they are riddled with corruption…not just moral and ethical corruption but actual physical/financial corruption.

In all three films corruption is so prevalent as to be the air that people breathe. Cops are corrupt, businesses are corrupt, nurses are corrupt, bureaucrats are corrupt…bad guys are corrupt, good guys are corrupt, everyone is corrupt. Corruption is contagious until it just becomes normalized…just like it is here in the U.S.

I am always amused when I read an article or hear some talking head in the U.S. bemoaning the corruption in some far-off land like Russia or China or Brazil and they use some study that shows the amount of corruption in those countries as opposed to the pristine nature of the U.S. as proof of their thesis. The problem with studies and theories like these is that corruption in the U.S. has simply been codified into law…so it is no longer considered corruption….but it is still corruption. Look no further than the ungodly amounts of money thrown around in the American political system for proof of that. In other countries that would be considered corruption…here it is just considered business as usual.

What makes It Was Just an Accident so remarkable is that is transcends its national and cultural borders and places all of us in the same predicament as its Iranian protagonist Vahid. We know the monumental question he grapples with and the danger it poses. We also understand how not only his life but his soul is on the line. We don’t just see what he is struggling with…we struggle right along with him.

All of this is a credit to Jafar Panahi, his brilliant writing, his exquisite filmmaking, and his uncompromising attitude and artistry.

Panahi obviously made this film as an indictment against the Iranian regime that has persecuted him, but this story simply cannot be contained within those borders. The moral and ethical insights Panahi provides can be applied just as equally to Iran’s attackers – Israel and the U.S., as it can to the despotic Iranian regime itself. Which is why this filmmaker and this film are so brilliant.

It has not been easy writing a review of this movie without giving any of its plot to readers, but I think that is necessary in order to enjoy the film to its fullest.

I cannot recommend this film enough and urge people to go check it out on Hulu. If you don’t have Hulu…get a free week or something and then go watch It Was Just an Accident and also watch The Secret Agent – which is also streaming there.

My recommendation is to turn off the mindless, flag-waving, disinformation, propaganda news channels here in the U.S. (I assume you’re not watching the propaganda news channels in Iran), and instead go spend an hour and forty minutes and watch It Was Just an Accident right now…you will be very glad you did.

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