It Was Just An Accident: Movie Review

Cast: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr, Ebrahim Azizi
Director: Jafar Panahi

It starts off simply with a man driving with his young daughter and wife through the night. 

But after the driver hits a dog (and shocks his daughter with the news it's dead as she realises he killed it), they're forced to a random house when the car dies.

As they seek help from the owners, it soon turns out one of them Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) recognises the driver - he was the Iranian secret official who tortured them during captivity - or so he believes.

Following him and then kidnapping him the next day, Vahid plans to kill him in revenge - but a stab of doubt pangs his belief and in desperation, he turns to former colleagues who also were Peg Leg's victims...

Mixing Panahi's real life internment and a hefty dollop of "what would  you do" morality, It Was Just An Accident's mix of uneasy comedy and blood curdling use of sound makes for an unsettling watch.

As he deftly builds a level of quiet discomfort, the film skates a line of ambiguity with deftness as bitterness rises to the surface between the core group of those afflicted by Peg Leg's previous reign of terror. 

With the cast representing differing and unswerving points of view, there are plenty of moments of feelings of allegiances being switched and moments of severe moral discomfort. Yet sandwiched in between those are moments of near high farce that feel occasionally awkward and shift-in-your-seat uncomfortable.

The Palme D'Or winner delights in duality and a commentary on the bribes ethos that runs deep within Iranian officialdom.

But where it soars is in its lead - Mobasseri's deft playing of a man who is 100% sure and bent on revenge before his latent humanity comes to the fore is nothing short of exceptional. The emotional internal turmoil is as obvious as the physical discomfort he feels.

This, coupled with Panahi's almost visceral dialogue in parts, makes for a powerful mix that takes audiences deep into a world that feels all-too-far away.

And while the film's resolution feels disappointing in some ways, its final moment involving such stillness and abject terror evoked by sound is one of the singular and disturbingly memorable images committed to celluloid this year.

Workmates: Movie Review

Cast: Sophie Henderson, Matt Whelan, Arlo Green, Zoe Robins, Chris Parker
Director: Curtis Vowell

Fantail's husband and wife director once again team up - this time for a film about a life in the arts.

A deeply engaging Henderson plays Lucy, a perennially stuck mess of a human who's resorted to living at the theatre she manages and whose laissez-faire approach to life and the problems it often poses is covered mostly by her long-suffering friend and cohort Tom (Whelan).

When Lucy one day injures herself at work, the theatre is condemned unless it can secure a new lifeline of funding. As if that's not seismic enough for Lucy, Tom is threatening to leave their beloved theatre behind, spurred on by a need to care for his newly pregnant girlfriend...

There's a gentle easiness to Workmates that proves to be disarmingly engaging as this sweet and overly cute film plays out. Buoyed by the push and pull dynamic between Tom and Lucy, there's a real sense of deep and grounded history between the pair, made deftly alive by easy chemistry between the two of them.

Yet underneath the charmingly sweet exterior, there's a a couple of barbed moments aimed squarely at New Zealand's arts. From a clarion call to save theatres via a tender moment looking at the dilapidated ruins of Auckland's St James Theatre to a distressingly all-too-familiar appearance of predators within the community, Henderson has clearly channelled her time in the arts to finesse a message that's obvious to those looking in.

But rather than become obsessed with this in the film, Workmates works best when it focuses on Tom and Lucy, with her wilfully inept and openly negligent character opining at one point, "I just wanna hang out with you like this forever" to Tom, whose uptight attitude is the corrective course that Lucy just needs more than anything.

There's also a great deal of tenderness here, with many able to recognise the feeling that one job - or calling - in life can bring. As one character worries, "What if there isn't any magic anywhere else?" there's a sense that growing up forces an ennui and unhappiness on those suffering from arrested development.

There may be a couple of misfires within Workmates - from Zoe Robins' one-note harridan nag of a girlfriend to an over-indulgent late night party - but for the large part, this is a film that has its heart on its sleeve and is largely all the better for it.

Held together by winning performances from Henderson and Whelan, this may be the sweetly surprising antidote to any romcom ennui you may feel has been foisted upon you.

Workmates is playing as part of the NZIFF before a wider release.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater release is soon 

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is due to release in less than a month, 

The very latest trailer showcases some of the action from the remake.

METAL GEAR SOLID Δ: SNAKE EATER introduces a number of additions to the gameplay side of things including a third person view.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater releases August 28.

  

Ghost of Yotei gameplay revealed

Ahead of the release of Sucker Punch Productions' latest Ghost of Yotei, the developer has unveiled a look at what lies ahead in the next installment of the Ghost of Tsushima series.

Ghost of Yotei arrives October 2.

Avatar: Fire and Ash First look

The first look at the brand new Avatar movie, called Fire and Ash has been unveiled.

The trailer for “Avatar: Fire and Ash” from Oscar®-winning filmmaker James Cameron is here! The trailer and film stills are now available to download and share. The third film in the phenomenally successful “Avatar” franchise opens exclusively in cinemas in IMAX 3D, Dolby Cinema 3D, RealD 3D, Cinemark XD, 4DX, ScreenX, and premium screens on December 18, 2025.

With “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” James Cameron takes audiences back to Pandora in an immersive new adventure with Marine turned Na’vi leader Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), Na’vi warrior Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and the Sully family. The film, which has a screenplay by James Cameron & Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver, and a story by James Cameron & Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver & Josh Friedman & Shane Salerno, also stars Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Oona Chaplin, Cliff Curtis, Britain Dalton, Trinity Bliss, Jack Champion, Bailey Bass and Kate Winslet.

DJ Ahmet: Movie Review

Cast: Arif Jakup, Agush Agushev, Dora Akan Zlatanova, Aksel Mehmet, Selpin Kerim
Director: Georgi Unkovski

A simple coming-of-age story writ into a larger narrative of unrequited love, DJ Ahmet follows teen Ahmet, whose family is broken following the death of his mother.

Unable to connect with his father and a protector of his now mute young brother, Ahmet is wrenched from school to care for the family flock - both the sheep and the youngster. Escaping through his music (when very limited wi-fi permits it), Ahmet is the region's technical expert.

But when he meets Aya, who's been brought back from Germany to marry an older man, he finds his world is opened up to the possibilities he may never be able to get again.

Definitively sweet and peppered with some moments of unexpected humour - a pink sheep and an inept owner of the broadcaster of the local prayers chief among them - DJ Ahmet weaves a very familiar tale in a very unfamiliar environment.

The push and pull of the dynamic between both Ahmet, his father, and also Aya,who also yearns to break away from her life and destiny, works exceptionally well in the gentle story as it unfolds. With a sensitively helmed camera from Unkovski, DJ Ahmet unfurls at a pace that's enjoyable but also frustratingly forgettable in parts.

There are moments which capture the hedonism and the frustration of youth and the connection that music brings - and while Jakup's restrained performance delivers what's necessary for the teen, the film's familiarity soon becomes both its strength and weakness.

But in transposing a story to a world never often glimpsed before, DJ Ahmet becomes a charmer of a film that proves not everything needs to be a large-scale piece of cinematic proportions.

DJ Ahmet is part of the NZIFF. For more, visit nziff.co.nz