The movie titled It Was Just an Accident by Jafar Panahi is a morally haunting film. It places the moral decision, whether one should refrain from taking revenge on tormentors, into an indeterminate position by staging it within an authoritarian political context. An accident is a mystery: a mystery in which the tormented encounters the tormentor. The victims are ordinary, powerless people who value justice and nonviolence. They are suddenly awakened to their painful prison memories, accidentally, to the sound of the tormentor’s gait. The officer, whose car had struck a dog, comes to repair it and seeks a toolbox from one of his victims. That victim recognises the sound of his gait, which reignites anger and the thought of revenge. Panahi seems to suggest two divergent versions of reality, which may collide accidentally at any time. The officer, who at first conceals his identity, eventually reveals himself, first as the oppressor, and then, when confronted by a woman recount...
The film A Poet is about living as a poet, which is different from merely being a poet. The poet in A Poet had won notable prizes in his youth. In the present, he is seen as a drunk by others, except by his mother and some close ones. As he considers himself a poet, he does not want to waste his life on any work, but he had no choice and worked as a teacher. He tried to encourage his students to write poetry, even though they rarely wanted to become poets. Some boys like poetry because it can help them win girlfriends. The poet doesn't object to such aspects of poetry. He dreams happily when boys ask him about it. Among the students, he finds a girl who writes poems and draws in her notebooks. He encourages her to write and participate in a poetry festival. She lives in a crowded joint family. Although she doesn't want to be a poet, she writes all her feelings and thoughts directly, without needing editing—poems that come naturally. At the poetry festival, she recites her po...