A Simple Accident
But like so much else in this blackly brilliant film, a question mark hangs over this Blood Simple- style scenario. Is this man, played by Ebrahim Azizi, really the author of his suffering or is he just a family man called Eghbal, as he claims? All the Gimp's victims were blindfolded, so how can anyone be sure?
Panahi is a formidably courageous filmmaker who has spent time in jail at the hands of his country's repressive regime. Here, he brings deep feeling to a movie that often plays closer to a straight comedy than a fiercer indictment of the state or a Munich -like morality tale about justice and vengeance.
You can definitely sense the directorial wish-fulfilment in the carnivalesque that follows as Vahid drags the drugged Eghbal around Tehran in his beat-up transit van, gathering a small band of fellow victims to help him identify the man and decide what to do with him. Joining this increasingly hapless quest are wedding snapper Shiva (Mariam Afshari), a soon-to-be newlywed couple (Hadis Pakbaten and Majid Panahi), and the relentlessly impulsive Hamid (Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr). All have traumatic personal connects to the torturer.
Farhadi has a whale of a time taking the piss out of his country's corruption
The director is clearly having a whale of a time taking the piss out of the corruption, cruelty and bribery rife in his country. One police officer even fishes out a card reader to take a bribe when the gang don't have cash to hand to get out of a tight spot.
Panahi holds this tonal range expertly as laughs give away to a probing, philosophical third act that upends expectations in quietly thrilling style.
And there's deep seriousness, and a streak of real darkness, beneath the big laughs. The fact that a soon-to-be-married couple, dressed in their wedding finery for a photoshoot that Vahid has interrupted, join the revenge mission is not just the punchline for some great jokes, it feels symbolic too. A Simple Accident is a journey through a county whose trauma still needs healing before healthy new bonds can begin to form. The question of how to achieve that lies at the heart of this masterful movie.
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The National
04-06-2025
- The National
'GTA Paisley' game is capturing imaginations
Richard Gellalty was blown away when a video of gameplay posted by his girlfriend, the musician Linzi Clark, went viral on TikTok, receiving more than 30k likes and over 1000 comments. The clip showed a man in a hi-vis jacket running around a deserted Neilston Road at night in the pouring rain, to an atmospheric and ambient soundtrack. Many of those commenting celebrated similarities with the iconic Grand Theft Auto series, created in Dundee and Edinburgh by Rockstar Games, but set in fictional versions of cities in the United States. In the finished version the graphic designer says that gamers will be able to use 'a mouse/keyboard or controller to freely run around and interact' with characters and objects in order to uncover mysteries surrounding the town. Whether the project can become a playable third person game by next year depends on funding. At the time of writing, £3623 has been pledged through crowdfunding. Another £8377 is required by June 11 for the 34-year-old to receive any of the money, as Kickstarter funding is 'all or nothing'. Gellalty, who is known professionally as Bovine, needs help from fans to make the project a reality. Haddows features in the game (Image: Bovine) 'Anyone interested can share the Kickstarter link and encourage others to share it," he said. "The priority is getting as many people seeing the project and making it easy for them to decide if they like it enough to donate.' The self-taught developer learned how to use graphics and game software programs like Blender, Unreal Engine and GIMP in order to recreate his hometown of Paisley. This time-consuming task involves creating an entire 3D world with characters, soundtrack, story and puzzle development. Bovine says that the exterior or interior of one building 'starts to look acceptable with a few days' work, acceptable being white cubes that loosely resemble a building, and within a week it's mostly there.' READ MORE: Glasgow arcade fights anxiety with calm games and quiet sessions The artist has confirmed that the game's name will be 'Crystal Garden' after the much loved restaurant on Neilston Road. The takeaway will feature as a sanctuary for the main playable character, who his creator describes as 'a builder putting up high flats by himself, in the rain no less'. Further details on the story and character interaction are Kickstarter-dependent. Bovine wants to devote time to writing dialogue and would like to source local talent for voice acting, saying: 'It's a balance but I think it would add a lot to it if done right'. Different opportunities for involvement in the game's final form are accessible for those who donate. For example, £80 can get supporters a short clip of their voice featured as a response when the character uses a buzzer entry system. While it will need to be something that works in the game, Bovine says that the person speaking will have creative control of what they say 'within reason". (Image: Bovine) Bovine says that many have reacted positively online to the game being set in the 2000s. He believes that 3D worlds can trigger nostalgia more effectively than films, images and music due to the 'added interactive element' and that he'd 'like to show the game to people who know the area but have lost a connection with it'. One Instagram user described a clip of gameplay in the Lagoon Leisure Centre as 'haunting", saying the footage reminded them of "the mad wave noise" and smell of the chips served in the café. On whether the game will satirise Scottish society in the way that GTA satirises the USA, the developer states that satire 'goes hand in hand with mimicking reality', acknowledging that GTA's creators 'are obviously tenured experts at it'. READ MORE: Edinburgh: Scottish gaming industry celebrated in major new exhibition Elaborating further, he says that a lot of logos and trademarks will need to be changed, and shop names 'remade for the in-game world' which 'could potentially have nods to the real world equivalent in a similar way to GTA'. Alongside GTA, Bovine says Crystal Gardens will be inspired by multiple game universes. In particular, the Broken Sword series, which focuses on ancient mysteries and conspiracies. Other inspirations include Oddworld, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Courier Crisis, Namco Museum, and Men In Black. The synopsis on the Kickstarter hints at supernatural themes, but Bovine has confirmed the game will be 'probably more comically scary than serious', involving 'underground exploration'. Check out the Kickstarter for further details on the game and what content financial backers can access.
Time Out
21-05-2025
- Time Out
A Simple Accident
It's a suitably arresting set-up for Jafar Panahi' s politically charged and darkly hilarious abduction movie – especially when it becomes clear what's going on: impulsive mechanic Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) believes he's caught the brutal interrogator who once tortured him for three months and left him scarred – a man given the epithets 'Peg Leg' and 'the Gimp' by his victims. The guy in cuffs has a prosthetic leg, just like the Gimp, who lost his fighting in Syria. It scans. But like so much else in this blackly brilliant film, a question mark hangs over this Blood Simple- style scenario. Is this man, played by Ebrahim Azizi, really the author of his suffering or is he just a family man called Eghbal, as he claims? All the Gimp's victims were blindfolded, so how can anyone be sure? Panahi is a formidably courageous filmmaker who has spent time in jail at the hands of his country's repressive regime. Here, he brings deep feeling to a movie that often plays closer to a straight comedy than a fiercer indictment of the state or a Munich -like morality tale about justice and vengeance. You can definitely sense the directorial wish-fulfilment in the carnivalesque that follows as Vahid drags the drugged Eghbal around Tehran in his beat-up transit van, gathering a small band of fellow victims to help him identify the man and decide what to do with him. Joining this increasingly hapless quest are wedding snapper Shiva (Mariam Afshari), a soon-to-be newlywed couple (Hadis Pakbaten and Majid Panahi), and the relentlessly impulsive Hamid (Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr). All have traumatic personal connects to the torturer. Farhadi has a whale of a time taking the piss out of his country's corruption The director is clearly having a whale of a time taking the piss out of the corruption, cruelty and bribery rife in his country. One police officer even fishes out a card reader to take a bribe when the gang don't have cash to hand to get out of a tight spot. Panahi holds this tonal range expertly as laughs give away to a probing, philosophical third act that upends expectations in quietly thrilling style. And there's deep seriousness, and a streak of real darkness, beneath the big laughs. The fact that a soon-to-be-married couple, dressed in their wedding finery for a photoshoot that Vahid has interrupted, join the revenge mission is not just the punchline for some great jokes, it feels symbolic too. A Simple Accident is a journey through a county whose trauma still needs healing before healthy new bonds can begin to form. The question of how to achieve that lies at the heart of this masterful movie.
The Guardian
21-05-2025
- The Guardian
Banned film-maker Jafar Panahi says friends lost hope he would direct again
Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi, who has previously been arrested and jailed and whose films have been banned in Iran on multiple occasions, has said 'even my closest friends had given up hope that I would ever make films again'. Panahi was speaking at a press conference before the premiere of his new film A Simple Accident at the Cannes film festival, his first visit in 22 years since bringing Crimson Gold to Cannes in 2003. Panahi was released from jail in Iran in 2023, having been detained in 2022 after attempting to support fellow film-maker Mohammad Rasoulof and subsequently going on hunger strike. Panahi said: 'I said to myself I didn't know how to do anything else … I can't change a lightbulb, I can't work a screwdriver. I don't know how to do anything except make films.' A Simple Accident is the first film Panahi has made since his release. A thriller about a car accident that triggers a series of increasingly nightmarish events, the Guardian's chief film critic Peter Bradshaw described it as Panahi's 'most emotionally explicit film yet: a film about state violence and revenge, about the pain of tyranny that coexists with ostensible everyday normality'. It was produced by French company Les Films Pelléas, shot in Iran and edited in France. In the run-up to Cannes, Panahi spoke to the Guardian in his first newspaper interview for 15 years, despite being given a 20-year ban on speaking to the media in 2010. In the interview, Panahi said his recent time in jail led directly to the idea for his new film: 'I was in a large space with other political prisoners. Some of them had been there for 10 or 15 years. Their experience – their stories, their take on what captivity meant to them – was inspiring. It was like the world opened up to me. Gradually, I had an idea for a film that gathered these pieces together.' Panahi's clashes with authorities in Iran date as far back as 2003, when he was arrested at Tehran airport after returning from a film festival in Moscow. In 2010 he was sentenced to six years in jail for allegedly 'endangering national security' after the 'green movement' protests against Iran's government. His sentence was later changed to house arrest and restriction of movement. Panahi continued to make films in defiance of the authorities, including This Is Not a Film from 2011, which was shown at Cannes after being smuggled out of Iran on a USB drive hidden inside a cake, Closed Curtain, shot inside a house with the curtains closed, and which won the Silver Bear for best screenplay at the Berlin film festival in 2013 and Taxi Tehran, entirely shot inside cars, which won the Golden Bear at Berlin in 2015. He also won the best screenplay award at Cannes for 2018's 3 Faces and the special jury prize at Venice for 2022's No Bears. Panahi said at the Cannes press conference that he had no intention of giving up work. 'I behave just like other Iranians, I'm not a special case in any matter. The Iranian women are forbidden to go out without a headscarf but still they do so. I'm not doing anything more heroic. As soon as I finish my work here I will go back to Iran, the next day. And I will ask myself what's my next film going to be.'
