Director Jafar Panahi has an incredible deal in widespread together with his “It Was Simply an Accident” ensemble of characters, fellow Iranian dissidents who, like himself, have suffered incarceration, intimidation, interrogation, and even torture by the hands of the Islamic Republic. When Panahi introduces his disparate group of former prisoners, they’ve been reunited by the kidnapping of the person they imagine is “Peg Leg,” aka Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi), the interrogator who used to blindfold and terrorize them in jail. With the roles reversed, and their former captor unconscious behind a van, the primary 80 minutes of “It Was Simply an Accident” are a comedic and anxious journey by Tehran, because the group wrestles with their very own conflicting feelings of what to do with the person who tortured them.
Whereas Panahi’s clandestine shoot —filmming an unsactioned script out within the open in Iran’s capital for the primary time since his 2010 arrest–– got here with vital difficulties, one in all them wasn’t working with non-and-semi skilled actors. Panahi, whereas a visitor on this week’s episode of the Toolkit podcast, mentioned his run-and-gun taking pictures course of and his consolation degree working with untrained actors below these circumstances. And the outcomes communicate for themselves, as “It Was Simply an Accident” options a number of longer take scenes crammed with the rhythms of the eclectic ensemble’s back-and-forth dialogue and Panahi’s seemingly easy comedic timing and tonal steadiness, none of which ever feels hindered by the solid’s lack of coaching, nor the taking pictures circumstances.
That might not be the case within the movie’s closing quarter-hour, as Panahi makes a dramatic shift within the climactic scene and the shift to the now-conscious Eghbal character.
“Whereas I used to be engaged on this movie, I saved considering that each one these characters are speaking a couple of character who’s absent himself,” stated Panahi, interpreted by Sheida Dayani. “And now I needed to have a shot that was totally his, that that belonged to him, and the opposite characters needed to be absent, and my solely resolution was to have a medium shot of him. It made it a bit troublesome.”
“Slightly troublesome” is an understatement. Panahi was diminished to a single tight shot of the actor as a result of Azizi must carry it together with his character blindfolded, tied to a tree, and delivering a monologue that runs a Hamlet-like emotional gamut by his roles as brutal interrogator, kidnap sufferer, loving household man, and at last sufferer of the identical authoritarian regime because the dissidents he’s brutalized.
Discussing the sequence with Panahi on the New York Movie Pageant, Martin Scorsese commented that the movie’s success depends on the emotional intestine punch of the scene, and the rawness with which Azizi is ready to convey it with “the depth of his physique and his reactions” whereas being bodily confined. To which, Panahi admitted it was the sequence he was by far essentially the most involved about heading into the film, and the one they “put all of our vitality” and focus into (together with the opening) within the lead-up to taking pictures.
Whereas on the podcast, Panahi additional commented on the diploma of problem of the 13-and-a-half-minute efficiency whereas working with “all of the stress that we have now throughout taking pictures as a result of each second counts and it’s very important.” As a result of there have been already vital dangers concerned with such an extended static shot out the open and with lights skilled on Azizi at evening, there was no further time to rehearse or do a number of takes.
It could be the one function that required a full-blown skilled actor. Azizi had stepped away from performing in mainstream initiatives for moral causes and has grow to be accustomed to engaged on underground initiatives like “It Was Simply an Accident” and the unconventional circumstances that include avoiding the authorities. But regardless of this background, the diploma of problem was such that on the primary evening taking pictures the scene, Panahi confronted his worst concern: It wasn’t working. The issue, although, wasn’t the efficiency per se.
“I spotted that the precise downside is that I don’t know this interrogator,” stated Panahi. “The explanation was that I had been interrogated myself 15 years in the past, and it was for a interval of three months, so a very long time had handed, and I had not likely been capable of join with the interrogator [character].”
That evening Panahi turned to his buddy Mehdi Mamoudian for assist. A human rights defender and journalist, Mamoudian had spent “1 / 4 of his life in jail” in response to Panahi (and needed to return to jail over the course of 2025), had beforehand helped with the movie’s dialogue, however now may assist unlock a personality he sadly was all too acquainted with from his numerous hours of interrogation.
“He gave the actor all the main points about what interrogators often do and the way they often behave. First, they arrive and so they play it dumb. Then they attempt to [say] ‘When you work with me right here, I’ll work with you there.’ Then they could present some power. Then they could humiliate, then they could have hysterical laughs.”
No matter what number of instances he noticed it in post-production, or out on the festival-to-awards circuit, Panahi stated he nonetheless marvels at what Azizi was capable of do with Mamoudian’s steering of the character, saying there may be not an “further body” in the complete 13-minute-plus efficiency.
“I do know that it’s kind of anticipated to have an incredible efficiency by superstars in supporting roles, however this actor, although he isn’t a celebrity, he’s performing at least them,” stated Panahi.
It’s a disgrace in an age of the supporting performing awards going to actors in main roles (simply so long as they aren’t the principal protagonist), that Azizi’s identify hasn’t been thought of. As “It Was Simply an Accident” solely continues to choose up Oscar momentum since profitable the Palm d’Or in Might, there isn’t a 2025 movie so depending on a supporting efficiency in what’s the most important quarter-hour of performing this 12 months.
To listen to Jafar Panahi’s full interview, with interpreter Sheida Dayani, subscribe to the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your favourite podcast platform.
