It Was Just an Accident
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Synopsis
In this Palme d’Or winner from the Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi, a chance encounter sets in motion an urgent moral thriller. When a stranded driver (Ebrahim Azizi) walks into his shop, mechanic Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) believes he has come face-to-face with Eghbal, a notoriously brutal guard who tortured him during his political imprisonment. Gathering a band of fellow former inmates and other allies, Vahid sets out to take justice into his own hands—but does he have the right man? Shot in secret after Panahi’s longtime ban from filmmaking in his home country, It Was Just an Accident is a tour de force of sustained tension and mordant humor, provocatively shifting perspectives to examine vital questions of trauma and revenge.
Picture 9/10
Jafar Panahi's It Was Just an Accident comes to 4K UHD through The Criterion Collection, who present the film on a triple-layer UHD disc in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The SDR 2160p/24hz ultra high-definition presentation is sourced from a master supplied by Neon. The release also contains a standard dual-layer Blu-ray, featuring a 1080p presentation of the film alongside all special features.
As a recent film that was photographed digitally, I expected this one to look impressive, and it certainly does. The presentation is very clean and razor sharp throughout, delivering fine detail and texture without much of a sweat, with the underlying digital image appearing stable and natural, free of any obvious compression issues, while Criterion's encode proves equally strong. I didn't detect any significant banding, which was an issue on the Blu-ray release of No Bears (though that may have been inherent to the source photography), nor did I notice any macroblocking or other obvious digital artifacts while viewing it.
And though it is presented in SDR, dynamic range manages to appear impressively wide. Black levels appear deep and inky, while shadow gradations remain smooth with subtle shifts, all without introducing visible noise. Darker sequences look especially strong in this area, highlights popping nicely without obvious clipping. The film's palette is not particularly wide, but color saturation is excellent throughout, with reds (particularly taillights and other light sources at night) looking particularly vibrant.
In the end, this is a superb digital presentation, with Criterion's encode doing an impeccable job in its delivery.
It Was Just an Accident - Screen Captures
Audio 8/10
Presented in DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround, the soundtrack features a handful of flashier moments, whether it be a sudden burst of action or activity within busy city streets, however the film is otherwise fairly low key in its delivery. Still, the track features an impressive level of range, with clean dialogue and excellent fidelity throughout. Surround activity is also subtle but very effective. In all, it's clean with a mix perfectly suited to the film.
Extras 5/10
Since this is a release for a newer film, I admittedly wasn't anticipating an extensive amount of material, though what we get here still feel somewhat sparse, all of which being found on the included Blu-ray. First up is footage from a press conference held at the Cannes Film Festival featuring director Jafar Panahi, producer Philippe Martin, and actors Majid Panahi, Vahid Mobasseri, Hadis Pakbaten, Mariam Afshari and Ebrahim Azizi. It's no different than every other press conference out of Cannes, but this one ends up proving a bit more engaging than most. While there is discussion around the film's themes (particularly violence and revenge, and the cycle that can come from them), the focus is primarily on how Panahi's imprisonment influenced aspects of the production, how conditions in Iran changed following his release, and the potential repercussions surrounding a film made in secret eventually being screened publicly at the festival.
These types of press conferences can either be fascinating or a slog to sit through, and thankfully this 45-minute session falls firmly into the former category, largely due to the insight it provides into how the film was conceived and produced. An even stronger addition is a new 32-minute conversation between Panahi and filmmaker Ramin Bahrani. Much of their talk has the two focusing more on subjects like Panahi's influences and the film's technical construction, including when long takes are appropriate and when they are not, with Panahi noting they should never be used simply for their own sake. They also explore the film's themes surrounding cycles of violence and the uncertainty of the future before turning to the consequences of working in opposition to the Iranian regime. For Panahi, those consequences have included being prohibited from making films, restrictions he has repeatedly chosen to ignore.
The disc closes with the film's trailer, while the included insert features a lengthy essay by Sheida Dayani examining the film's themes of doubt and revenge, the symbolic roles of its characters, and even likens it to similar films such as Death and the Maiden.
Though I found the material insightful, particularly the discussion surrounding both the film's production and the circumstances under which it was made, it all still feels surprisingly slight, especially considering this is the first Panahi film to receive a full Criterion release (excluding No Bears, which was released through Criterion's Janus Contemporaries line). I guess it's not a big surprise, but disappointing nonetheless.
Closing
Though we only get a slim selection of supplements, this is thankfully offset by a wonderful 4K presentation anchored by another solid encode from Criterion.
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