Master Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has been making films in secret for decades, producing uncompromising work that criticizes his country’s often brutal theocratic autocracy. He’s even spent time in prison for it.
Since “It Was Just an Accident” was first released in the Bay Area in October, so much has happened. The film, about a group of former political prisoners who kidnap a man whom they believe to be their former interrogator, became an Oscar contender; Panahi was sentenced in absentia to a year in prison; and Iran is now in a war with the United States and Israel.
In his review for the Chronicle, contributor Bob Strauss writes, “Panahi leaves us with the haunting suggestion that, whether innocent or evil, some people get put through too much to ever really be free.”
If ever a film that’s less than a year old deserves a fresh look, this is it, and Richmond District’s Balboa Theatre is happy to oblige.