Twice-jailed Panahi spins a moral tale for our authoritarian times
Daniel Nelson
For want of a nail the shoe was lost;
for want of a shoe the horse was lost;
and for want of a horse the rider was lost,
being overtaken and slain by the enemy,
all for want of care about a horse-shoe nail.
When Eghbal, driving at night, accidentally kills a dog, his young daughter is upset. It Was Just An Accident, says her mother dismissively in the front seat. But life is not always so simple.
From that small highway incident dissident Iranian director Jafar Panahi spins a yarn that gets wilder, more complex, more farcical and more serious with every minute of this entertaining and morally profound revenge thriller.
Its dark heart is torture in an Iranian prison before the film opens. Time passes, and the torturer is discovered — or is he? Is it a case of mistaken identity? After all, the victims were blindfolded while being abused. And if it really were the sadist, what should be done with him? Death is on the agenda. Revenge is sweet, but would that reduce the former prisoners-turned-assailants to the moral level of the man and the regime they hate?
But remember, this is a film by Panahi, one of the best directors in the world, and though it’s a joint French, Iranian, Luxembourger production its flavour is Iranian, one of the most interesting film cultures in the world (even if most of the best films are made in secret or or abroad or by tricking the censors with a false script).
The twice imprisoned Panahi initially keeps you wondering what’s going on, then hooks in a vanful of engaging characters so diverse (including a couple in full wedding regalia) you wonder what will happen next and who’s going to do it. A phone rings in the suspect’s pocket, and a new wacky layer of plot and morality is exposed. It’s comical, but the laughter is about conversations and situations that matter and which finally come to a cathartic climax.
Along the way, the film makes digs at targets such as casual, everyday corruption in Iranian life.
Chapeau, Panahi, for a wonderfully entertaining anti-authoritarian strike.