Yek tasadof-e sadeh

Vahid, who was once imprisoned and tortured by the Iranian authorities, meets a man he believes to have been his most sadistic torturer. He can’t be sure though, as he was blindfolded during the interrogations. Intent on violent revenge but afraid of hurting an innocent person, he kidnaps the man and asks another former inmate to corroborate his suspicion. Neither absolutely confident, they decide to track down other survivors. The group keeps growing as they drive around in Vahid’s van with their prisoner in tow, desperately pursuing a certainty that remains just beyond reach. A taut thriller nuanced by an undercurrent of absurdist farce, YEK TASADOF-E SADEH, winner of this year’s Palme d’Or, is Jafar Panahi’s most outspoken and explicitly political film to date. That it was made after he was himself released from Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison gives the story an obvious autobiographical dimension. Yet its moral implications extend beyond the personal to encompass all of Iranian society in the wake of the Woman, Life, Freedom protests. Now that new freedoms have been achieved, opening an unprecedented window of opportunity, the film sets the desire for vengeance against the imperative to keep pushing forward. (Giovanni Marchini Camia)

Jafar Panahi: THE WHITE BALLOON (1995), THE MIRROR (1997), THE CIRCLE (2000), CRIMSON GOLD (2003), OFFSIDE (2006), THIS IS NOT A FILM (2011, KO-REGIE), CLOSED CURTAIN (2013, KO-REGIE), TAXI (2015), 3 FACES (2018), NO BEARS (2022)