Un simple accident, the new act of resistance by Jafar Panahi

The multiple detentions, prison stints, house arrests, travel bans, and even prohibition to film that have plagued Jafar Panahi since he first started using a camera have never stopped his tenacious will. He has always continued shooting, sometimes in hiding, defying any obstacles and using what little means he had at his disposal to keep filming and reaffirm his freedom as a human being.

Through his cinema, which is minimalist yet deeply political, the Iranian director who often uses a semi-documentary style cinema that blurs the lines between fiction and reality, never stops questioning the fragility of individual freedoms and the complexity of social connections in a society that is governed by censorship and the unspoken.

In this film’s simple plot, which could be summarized as “after a small mishap, events ensue,” the director who still considers filming to be an act of resistance, portrays the Iranian people struggling for their freedom and filming, in plain sight, the strength of men and women’s rebellion in a constrained society.

With Un simple accident, where citizens are stealthily fighting State officials, Jafar Panahi returns to fiction without abandoning the topics that define his work. Above all, we are reminded he is a keen and sharp observer of his native country.