It Was Just An Accident

Despite a range of obstacles, from banning orders to imprisonment, Panahi – the subject of a comprehensive retrospective at SFF this year – remains unfailingly resolute in his determination to make films. “I’m a filmmaker. I can’t do anything else but make films,” he says. It Was Just an Accident begins with a family traveling on an isolated road, where an unfortunate bump in the road leads to their car being slightly damaged. At the repair shop in the middle of the night, a worker observes something that triggers a memory with immense repercussions.

With his new film, Panahi reimagines the Iranian road movie, taking the audience on a thrilling and devastating emotional rollercoaster involving a great ensemble cast. As Panahi says: “I don’t make political films, I make humanistic films.” Here he is at his most humanistic – presenting us with characters whose circumstances might well be very different from our own, but whose dilemmas, and choices between forgiveness and retribution, immerse us fully.