San Francisco Frontiers - Iranian director Jafar Panahi ramps up French Oscars campaign

The film, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, has been selected by France as its official nomination for the Academy Awards, and is widely expected to make the shortlist for the Best International Feature at the gala event in March.

"It Was Just an Accident" tells the story of a torturer from the Islamic Republic who finds himself in the hands of his former prisoners -- who were jailed for protesting for women's rights and fair wages -- and their struggle to decide whether to exact revenge or to take the moral high ground.

Made clandestinely, filming was halted by the Iranian police at one point, and had to be hastily completed.

The fact that post-production was done by a French company allowed France to effectively claim Panahi's film as its own in the Oscar race, under rules set by the Academy.

But Panahi, 65, says he would like to see those rules changed to allow dissidents like him who are censored by Tehran to represent their homeland.

"I really wanted it to be for my own country, but when an oppressed society exists, well, some difficulties do arise," he told AFP during an interview in Los Angeles.

The complaint is not new. While film festivals in Cannes, Venice, and Berlin make their own choices for films from around the world, the Oscars require each country's authorities to nominate a candidate for the Best International Feature Film award.

The system has faced increasing criticism and public protests in recent years, particularly in the face of rising authoritarianism.

"This decreases and undermines the independence of filmmakers," said Panahi, who continues to create, despite having been imprisoned twice, barred from making movies in the country and banned from traveling outside Iran until 2023.

- 'Humanist cinema' that resonates -

"Iranian cinema is humanist cinema, and it has always been able to resonate with audiences around the world," he said, recalling the Oscars awarded to Asghar Farhadi’s "A Separation" and "The Salesman," as well as the international success of Abbas Kiarostami, who won the Palme d'Or in 1997 for "Taste of Cherry."

Iranian greats have managed to navigate the system, despite pressure from Tehran, but artists fear the atmosphere in the Islamic Republic is increasingly hostile.

They say authorities have continued to tighten their grip in the wake of the 2022 popular uprising -- despite some continued defiance -- sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for her refusal to wear a headscarf in the approved manner.

Last year, director Mohammad Rasoulof went into exile to escape flogging and an eight-year prison sentence after filming "The Seed of the Sacred Fig," which became Germany's submission for the Oscars last year.

Rasoulof and Panahi were arrested together in 2010 when they were working on a film. Panahi went to prison for 3 months then, and for seven months after a 2022 arrest.

Panahi has since honed his techniques for shooting in secret.

A significant portion of the plot of "It Was Just an Accident" unfolds in a van, which also served as a hideout. Outdoor scenes were filmed in deserted areas and quiet neighborhoods.

"When you live somewhere, because you are in the heart of it, you can find the ways to escape," he said.

The film was partially inspired by Panahi's own time behind bars.

His camera follows the heated debates of ordinary Iranians, who shared the same prison interrogator, over what fate they want for their former jailer, who has been kidnapped by a garage owner.

Should they kill him to avenge the humiliations they suffered, or refuse to stoop to their torturer’s level?

Through this tormentor, the director sketches an Iran where the mullahs’ power is crumbling, and where this moral dilemma could soon become a collective one.

The film, he says, is not just about what happens in the present.

"You think about people who are going to live in that country later on, and you think about how you must plant the seeds to overcome violence."

S.Hall--SFF