We need to keep making and releasing art critical of oppressive regimes across the world now more than ever. Exiled Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi’s IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT is hard-hitting but darkly comic and always rooted in authentic human experiences. When Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) a former prisoner of the state by chance spots a man he thinks was his chief torturer, he resolves to take his revenge, and recruits a gang of fellow victims of authoritarian violence to help him do it. But how much do they really remember through a cloud of pain and torment? Panahi’s improvisational, always-on-the-move filming style necessitated by his fugitive status adds a sense of urgency beyond the film itself, which is taut and emotional and filled with gallows humour. Panahi’s entire filmography is well worth diving into if you’re not familiar, but It Was Just An Accident makes for a fantastically twisted introduction to his oeuvre. SSP