Jafar Panahi triumphs in Cannes with “A Simple accident”: golden palm and an appeal to the freedom of Iran

The 78th Cannes Film Festival ended with a historical and deeply exciting moment: the Iranian director Jafar Panahi won the golden palm for the best film with A Simple Accident, a film shot clandestinely and full of civil and personal tension. It is the first time in fifteen years that Panahi, the central figure of the Iranian dissident cinema, was able to participate in the festival in presence, receiving the prize directly from the hands of the jury president Juliette Binoche.

The film, set in Tehran, tells the random and dramatic encounter between a man and the one who believes it was his tormentor, offering a powerful look at the trauma, memory and open wounds of a country marked by repression. Moved and visibly excited, Panahi wanted to thank his family and his troupe on stage: “It is really difficult to speak: before saying something, allow me to thank my family for as long as I wasn’t with them,” he said. «And then the whole team that accompanied me and allowed me to do this film with them. And I also thank all those who accompanied me to France for the post production and our international distributor. It would not have been possible to make this movie if not with a busy team ».