یک تصادف ساده

In the bustling streets of Tehran, Reza, a middle-class taxi driver, experiences a moment of profound horror: a thud against the car. Convinced he has hit a pedestrian, he flees the scene in a panic, his mind reeling with fear of financial ruin and imprisonment. This single act of cowardice becomes the seed of a creeping existential crisis. As Reza returns to his daily life — ferrying people across the city — the invisible weight of his secret begins to distort reality. Everyday details begin to morph into direct accusations and his cab becomes a prison of his own guilt.

The car becomes a microcosm of a society under pressure, where private anxieties and public performances constantly collide, in Jafar Panahi’s latest offering. A tightly-wound psychological thriller, Panahi shows how, in the wrong circumstances, a moment’s mistake can come to define the trajectory of one's life. (Bethan Hughes)