Image Courtesy of Neon.
Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s excellent new film follows several people in Iran who come together to try to identify a man one of them has kidnapped—someone they might share a dark past with.
“It Was Just an Accident,” winner of the Palme d’Or, the top award at Cannes Film Festival, explores what they should do with the man—if he really is who they think he is.
There are two ways to tell a mystery.
The first is to clue an audience member onto the solution of the mystery and then follow the people trying to solve it. I call this the “Columbo” structure, after the fictional TV detective played by Peter Falk. The other is to let the audience try to solve the mystery along with the characters in real time, which is a more traditional way to write a mystery, a la Sherlock Holmes.
“It Was Just an Accident” adeptly combines the best aspects of a truly challenging political and philosophical drama with the structure of a traditional mystery thriller, unveiling each character and their motivations and ethics, as well as the events that brought them together, through masterfully written and directed dialogue, performed naturalistically by an incredibly talented cast.
On a technical level, the film is extremely simple. The takes are long, and nearly the whole film is delivered with dialogue instead of action or set pieces of any kind, aside from the van where most of the story takes place.
At one point, a character refers to Samuel Beckett’s stage play, “Waiting for Godot,” which parallels the dialogue-heavy and play-like dramatic structure that the film adopts to tell its story, and the reference isn’t a cheap aside. I believe it stands side by side with the strong level of writing in “Godot.”
Two of last year’s films come to mind when I try to compare this to previous films to play at Midtown. Walter Salles’ “I’m Still Here” explored the effects of a fascist kidnapping on family life in Brazil in the 1970s, and Mohamed Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” followed a family in Iran torn apart by distrust under a fascist regime—the same regime under which “Accident” was filmed.
Panahi, like Rasoulof, has been vocal about his criticism of the Iranian government. Rasoulof escaped Iran to Germany to release “Sacred Fig,” and Panahi escaped the latest of several imprisonments in Iran to release “Accident” from France, where it is the country’s official submission for the Academy Awards’ “Best International Feature Film” this year and is a clear front-runner.
“Accident” may be set entirely in the country and political atmosphere of Iran, which has had its current theocratic government in place since 1979, but it prompted invaluable questions that I believe every American should ask themselves in 2025. Where do we draw the line between revenge and forgiveness, for ourselves and for others? And at what point does it become worthwhile, in consequences moral and physical, to fight back against fascism?
“It Was Just an Accident” opens at Midtown Cinema in October and isn’t one to miss.
Midtown Cinema is located at 250 Reily St., Harrisburg. For more information, visit www.midtowncinema.com. Gabriel Brown serves as assistant manager at Midtown Cinema.
October Events
At Midtown Cinema
Potential First Run Films
“The Smashing Machine,” Oct. 3
“Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere,” Oct. 24
“Bugonia,” Oct. 31
“Nouvelle Vague,” Oct. 31
Cinemaaah! Series
“Re-Animator” (1985)
Friday, Oct. 3, 9:30 p.m.
“Alien” (1979)
Saturday, Oct. 4, 9:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Oct. 7, 7:30 p.m.
“Rosemary’s Baby” (1968)
Sunday, Oct. 5, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Oct. 14, 7:30 p.m.
“Carrie” (1976)
Tuesday, Oct. 7, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 11, 9:30 p.m.
“Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom” (1975)
Sunday, Oct. 12, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Oct. 14, 7:30 p.m.
“Halloween” (1978)
Friday, Oct. 17, 9:30 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 31, 9:30 p.m.
“Night of the Living Dead” (1968)
Friday, Oct. 17, 9:45 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 24, 9:45 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 31, 9:45 p.m.
“The Rocky Horror Picture Show” (1975)
Saturday, Oct. 18, 9:30 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 25, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 25, 10 p.m.
“Army of Darkness” (1992)
Sunday, Oct. 19, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Oct. 21, 7 p.m.
“Shin Godzilla” (2016)
Friday, Oct. 24, 9:30 p.m.
Down in Front! Comedy Riffing
“The Incredible Melting Man” (1977)
Friday, Oct. 10, 9:30 p.m.
“Bride of the Monster” (1955)
Friday, Oct. 24, 9:30 p.m.
Halloween Family Film Series
“Hotel Transylvania” (2012)
Saturday, Oct. 4, 11 a.m.
“The Addams Family” (1991)
Saturday, Oct. 11, 12 p.m.
“The Addams Family Values” (1993)
Saturday, Oct. 18, 12 p.m.
National Theatre Live
“Frankenstein” (Jonny Lee Miller as Creature)
Sunday, Oct. 5, 5 p.m.
“Frankenstein” (Benedict Cumberbatch as Creature)
Sunday, Oct. 12, 5 p.m.
Community Events
Open Mic Night, 7 to 9 p.m.
Tuesdays, Oct. 7, Oct. 21
Trivia Night, 7:15 p.m.
Tuesdays, Oct. 14, Oct. 28
Music at the Cinema
Every Thursday, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
If you like what we do, please support our work. Become a Friend of TheBurg!
