Film Recommendation

I’m writing these words one day after having returned from the cinema front lines, aka the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. I’m battered and bruised; a shell of a person. But the movie memories are, by-and-large, fond ones, and they’re the things that are keeping me going. My final film from this year’s jamboree was also one of the best, the new one from embattled Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi called Just a Simple Accident. 

This new film was his first made in Tehran and also his first since been arrested and detained by the government for miscellaneous descent against the ruling party. My full review is here (Opens in a new window), and at time of writing I think it’s going to be very well placed to pick up some prizes when they’re announced.

Panahi has a good track record in Cannes, and he picked up the Camera d’Or way back in 1995 for his superb feature-debut, The White Balloon. 

This wonderful film ramps up the ethereal poetics of classic neorealism and tells of a pre-teen girl who wants nothing more than to buy a goldfish, but accidentally loses the banknote she’s been given by her mother en route to the pet store. The film is a masterclass in creating fully fleshed-out and complex characters within seconds of them appearing in the frame, and Panahi proves that he is and has always been a master when it comes to creating chance encounters between random and often mis-matched people. 

It’s a key from the co-called Iranian New Wave, and it boasts an extraordinary performance from its young lead Aida Mohammadkhani, plus a screenplay from Panahi’s compatriot and cinematic brother-in-arms, Abbas Kiarostami.

We try to keep these recommendations focused on a single film, but if you see and enjoy this one, definitely seek out the director’s 1997 follow-up, The Mirror, which takes the classic neorealist template onto wild and metaphysical new terrain.

All that’s left to say is enjoy, and please do let us know what you think on the Club LWLies Discord (Opens in a new window)!

– David Jenkins