by Mark Demetrius
Worth: $18.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Vahid Mobasseri, Ebrahim Azizi, Mariam Afshari
Intro:
… it’s not just an exercise in courage; it’s terrific and powerful …
What a film! It starts quite unassumingly, as we watch a family of three out driving down a remote dirt road at night. The tone is mild, the style is understated if slightly claustrophobic and the pace is slow, but the atmosphere is suspenseful and the cinematography exquisite. Then the father, Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi), runs over a dog — hence the title — much to his young daughter’s distress. Not long afterwards, the car breaks down, and the upshot is that a mechanic called Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) thinks that he recognises Eghbal — as ‘Peg Leg’, the man who tortured him when he was a political prisoner. The plot thickens, as Vahid seeks to confirm his identity and probably exact revenge once he does.
The ensuing drama has a smorgasbord of great qualities, often supposedly contradictory ones, yet it all works sublimely. At its core is a very grim and serious theme — the heavy scenes are VERY heavy — and yet it’s often incongruously comic and even laugh-out-loud funny. There is no music and not a hint of ostentation or pretension, and the tale sometimes seems more like a slightly ‘opened out’ play, but it’s not stagey and the sheer originality of the story makes it unforgettable. There’s a bit of ‘preachy’ debate between characters about the moral rights and wrongs of retribution but, to be fair, whether that’s an imperfection is itself a matter of debate.
Director Jafar Panahi and Co. essentially made It Was Just an Accident in secret in Iran, at what can only have been enormous personal risk. But it’s not just an exercise in courage; it’s terrific and powerful — with, incidentally, a great ending — and it’s no surprise at all that it received a Palme d’Or at Cannes.
Highly recommended.
