Qualified as « gesture of resistance and survival » by Juliette Binoche, President of the 78th Jurynd edition of the Cannes festival, the last film by Jafar Panahi won the gold palm. Like Mohammad Rasoulof last year, the Iranian filmmaker also braved the Mollah regime to present his film. A simple accident is an incisive tragicomedia, written with finesse on Iranian civil resilience, wounds and demons. « Is forgiveness still possible ? » Panahi questions in his film.
Who's in doubt
Un simple accident tells the story of former Iranian detainees gathered by a contest of circumstances: a simple accident... While a family vehicle sank into the desert, the driver struck an animal at night. It's karma that expresses itself, seems to suggest her little girl, when the car breaks down. A few meters further, inside a nearby workshop, Vahid shuddered when he thought he recognized the voice of his former torturer who came to seek assistance. With courage (or madness), he decided to capture him for revenge. But doubt wins Vahid, so two fingers away from burying his prisoner alive. Earned by remorse, he decided to ensure his identity by seeking help from his former comrades. Each of them had a painful stay in the Iranian jails; They all had to deal with the one we called the « Guibole ». But is Vahid's revenge well directed against the right person?
Near variation of Beckett's play, Until Godot, A simple accident is very close to the theatre with a minimalist setting and a handful of characters, who will eventually deliver their confidences in the face of absurd situations they are facing. A simple accident is driven by a logic of reparation of a broken people, but always right. Worn by a well-recorded script, the film juggles between the sinister of life and a devilishly effective situational comic. We must see this team of nickel-plated feet embarking in van to see if their captive is indeed the person they suspect of having tortured them.
The Seeds of Dissidence
After the Lion and Ours, the Palm thus strengthens the influence of Panahi, a filmmaker in front of the Iranian dictatorship. With A simple accidenthe again sends a message of hope to his country, three years after the movement Female, Life, Freedom was massively controlled by the regime. If last year we regretted that Seeds of the wild fig tree Rasoulof was simply rewarded with a special prize, it seems that the jury chaired by Juliette Binoche this time wanted to breathe a breath of hope into Iranian society.
If it wasn't necessarily our first choice, The little last, Sirāt and Resurrection As Panahi has serious assets to make, awarding the highest distinction remains consistent. The selection of the jury also fixes the simple Special Mention of Wild fig seed, a film that surpassed Panahi's by dealing with revolutionary contagion at work at the beginnings of the movement Female, Life, Freedom. The revolution in the family home revolution.
As if it were an outrage, some have been outraged at what they consider to be a « Political Palm » ? Let us note that Juliette Binoche also seemed inconvenient when it came to speaking publicly about political subjects during this edition. The president thus multiplied the awkwardness during the opening of the festival. Of course, she paid tribute to Fatma Hassona, the Gazawi photojournalist killed with her family in her home by an Israeli missile fired intentionally. The young woman testified about the inside of Gaza's open-air prison in the film Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, directed by Sepideh Farsi (see our Interview on his previous film The Siren). A sponsored murder just after the film was announced as an official selection of the festival. First point therefore, before the opening of the Cannes festival, the festival was already policy.
Another sign of discomfort on the part of the President, Juliette Binoche was determined to late join the signatories in a forum explicitly condemning the « genocide » in Gaza. Even curious false note at the closing, this time concerning A simple accident In a flash speech not very inspired, Juliette Binoche this time defended herself from having awarded the Palme d'or to Panahi for political reasons, insisting that he should be praised for his work, as if the two were necessarily incompatible. Unless she wished in advance to exclude suspicions of favouritism, Binoche being known for her passion for the Iranian director's work. It is clear, however, that assigning the Palm to dissident Panahi has an intrinsic political character. Binoche's speech would have gained full acceptance of the jury's choice, as the film had enough qualities to legitimize a prize.
Let us not chew our words, it is indeed an umpteenth camouflet for Iran, however symbolic it may be. Since the massacre on 7 October, Tehran has indeed suffered a series of strategic setbacks with the liquidation of many of its supporters. « axis of resistance », exsangued since the assassinations of Hamas and Hezbollah executives and the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria. If the revolt of the movement Female, Life, Freedom The regime has been partly drained, although weakened by its regional defeats, the repression is continuing and Jafar Panahi may well face further reprisals very soon. So let us not tremble to say that it is a political palm, which is in no way a problem.
Filmer kills
Filming in Iran is not a small business to bypass Islamic morality. Films deemed subversive are immediately censored by a power that muzzles any outline of protest. Iran will have mobilised all the repressive gear needed to silence Panahi, a resolutely obstinate director. First sentenced in 2010 by the Iranian courts to six years in prison for propaganda against the regime, he was placed on parole before being arrested again two years ago. Freed in extremis after a hunger strike, Jafar Panahi never stopped resisting. Evidence of this, A simple accident was shot underground in Tehran using a camera in a car. It was therefore with the beard of the Iranian authorities that the dissident managed to complete his work, now awarded in Cannes. Another humiliation for the Mollah regime.
If in the previous edition you were told that the year 2023 had been the most deadly in terms of executions (853), Iran has since exceeded its sinister record with 975 persons sentenced to death and executed in 2024. This figure, which is largely underestimated by NGOs, is the highest since the first censuses started in 2008, with 90% of the deaths being presumed to be public. Although weakened internally, the regime, tireless, continues its war against its own people. Understanding this framework is essential to appreciate the open scars of many Iranians today and the hope that symbolizes the Panahi Golden Palm.
In his book Woman! Life! Freedom!, the anthropologist Chowra Makaremi traces the revolt of the movement Female, Life, Freedomexplaining that « the jugular, vital vein of the neck, is the physiological place of anger in Persian: to say outrage, it is said of a person that she has the jugular that inflates » before adding « The revolution is closer to power than the vein of its neck, already touched ». There is no doubt that Panahi, Rasoulof and so many other filmmakers of the Iranian New Wave are contributing by their courage to raise pressure against the regime. Like Bashar's Syria, the dictatorship will eventually fall, whatever the decades of suffering that will have to pass. The fall of the regime of Bashar showed: after more than fifty years of suffering of the Syrian people, the dictator fell.
[...] Despite a fierce competition, Jafar Panahi won the Golden Palm for a single accident, a film punched against the Iranian regime. Lovers of the seventh Art could also [...]