It was just an accident (Jafar Panahi, 2025)
Almost feels like Panahi is looking ahead. He dreams of a time where the regime is overthrown and ponders what that might mean for his people, both the lackeys of the regime and the successors of the new one. Does this new regime devolve into a kangaroo court? Jaffar Panahi asks on behalf of the oppressed: what is our relationship to political violence? Is there a way to reclaim political violence if pursued as an act of justice? Or is any form of violence inherently unjust? I don’t think Panahi offers a clear answer or is interested in one.
Essentially a courtroom drama, except there are no courts because victims do not have access to one of their own design. And in his own funny way, he animates this inner turmoil that pits trauma against our ideals and ultimately demonstrates the power of due process. This is as close to a fair trial where the goal isn’t punishment but penance.
Panahi’s films may seem resigned to the fact that the result is always preordained in favour of those in power. But the fact that as a persecuted artist he continues to make movies, the fact that the persecuted in his films continue to make the honest choice shows that the pursuit of virtue counts for something. That it is this pursuit that reminds us to never forget who we aspire to be as a species.
A fine example of the use of an ambiguous ending that doesn’t feel like a cop out, but instead tests our faith.