TFF: It Was Just an Accident (MA 15+)

Winner of the top prize at both Cannes and Sydney Film Festival, Jafar Panahi’s road movie thriller melds moral dilemmas, comic moments and shocking revelations to extraordinary, potent effect.

The film begins with a family traveling on an isolated road, where an unfortunate bump in the road leads to their car being damaged. At the repair shop in the middle of the night, a worker observes something that triggers a memory with immense repercussions. From here, Panahi takes the audience on a thrilling emotional rollercoaster involving a great ensemble cast. We follow characters whose circumstances might well be very different from our own, but whose dilemmas, and choices between forgiveness and retribution, immerse us fully.

Includes a screening of the short film Interview With a Hero, directed by Andy 'Celeste' Diep.

An enigmatic Cambodian-Australian puppeteer’s life begins to unravel during a TV performance. Can he be vulnerable to his young daughter about the genocide he fled?

 

Cast: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi

Director: Jafar Panahi

"Powerful, political and personal... A drama that left me speechless and wondering if it wasn’t the career-best work from Panahi, an incredible thing to even consider." ROGEREBERT

"Both timely and timeless." CINEUROPA

★★★★ "A taut and twisting revenge thriller loaded with heavyweight ethical quandaries." BBC

"Panahi welds scorching social critique to a masterful command of form... A towering achievement." FILM STAGE

★★★★ "Another very impressive serio-comic film from one of the most distinctive and courageous figures in world cinema." GUARDIAN

"Artfully crafted from the first to the last frame... It Was Just an Accident offers another fascinating case of Panahi turning the camera on himself." HOLLYWOOD REPORTER