Weekend films

'A simple accident', a powerful example of great committed cinema

Jafar Panahi has signed a film of extraordinary intensity, already awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival

by Andrea Chimento

7 November 2025

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

Memorable sequences
Anemone

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

The Palme d'Or shines in Italian theatres: the weekend's biggest theatrical release is undoubtedly 'A Simple Accident' by Jafar Panahi, a film that deservedly triumphed at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

It was an extraordinary emotion, among other things, to see Panahi parading on the red carpet of the Croisette to accompany his work: house arrest, time in prison, and a ban on making films have never stopped the great Iranian author, capable of showing how cinema is a weapon to fight against injustice and is something that cannot be stopped in any way.

After the very powerful 'Bears Don't Exist', Panahi makes a full return to fiction cinema to tell the story of a small group of people, convinced they have found the persecutor who tortured them in the past and ready to take revenge.

Many of the typical themes of Panahi's cinema can be found in this film, shot without permission, starting with that of the journey and the use of a microcosm of characters to narrate something much broader and universal.

The film is in fact a portentous socio-political allegory, effective in alternating the tones of farce with those of tragedy, combining them to arrive at a result of great dramatic and stylistic strength. Together with the characters, we the audience are also faced with moral dilemmas and questions about how we would behave if we were really confronted with our alleged persecutor.

In such a dark and brutal operation, there is, however, room for a great deal of humanity, demonstrated above all by a touching sequence in which the wife of the alleged torturer is ready to give birth to her second child.

“Un semplice incidente” e gli altri film della settimana
Photogallery4 foto

Memorable sequences

The vision opens with a family travelling at night when their car accidentally hits and kills a dog: with this small sequence, Panahi immediately begins to talk about the themes that he will be interested in developing later on, between a sense of justice and oppression.

It is, however, as the minutes pass that the film grows more and more, so much so that the concluding part is simply impressive, starting with a very long piano-sequence, in which the victims find themselves deciding what to do with their alleged tormentor.

This is followed by a final scene that is memorable and entirely consistent with the cinema of the director of 'Taxi Tehran': a moment that will not leave the viewer after the credits have rolled!

Anemone

Also among the new releases is 'Anemone', the directorial debut of Ronan Day-Lewis who, for the occasion, convinced his father Daniel to return to acting eight years after his unforgettable performance in Paul Thomas Anderson's 'The Hidden Thread'.

Set in the North of England, the film - after an audiovisually rich opening - opens by telling us the story of Jem, a middle-aged man, who lives with his partner and her teenage son. The boy is quite troubled and restless, so much so that he almost went so far as to viciously beat up one of his peers. At this point, Jem, feeling overwhelmed by events, makes an important decision for himself: he sets off in search of his brother Ray, a hermit who chose to distance himself from his family and society years before.

Co-written by the director with his father, this feature film recalls several films from Daniel Day-Lewis' career, starting with In the Name of the Father, both for reasons inherent to the telling of complex family dynamics and for its socio-political scope.

Ronan Day-Lewis is also a painter and it shows in many aesthetically beautiful shots with a great elegance in the choice of lighting and colours. It is a pity, however, that the script is not up to the mark, either in its basic premise or in a series of dramaturgical twists and turns that end up deflating the viewer's attention in several passages.

One could have expected more for many reasons, although there is no lack of truly remarkable moments. Daniel Day-Lewis' performance, however, is extraordinary and confirms him as one of the most important actors in the history of cinema in recent decades.