It Was Just an Accident

Filming this movie without government permission, after being imprisoned and censored is incredibly brave. More so with its premise: a former political prisoner accidentally captures the government official who tortured him. But is he really the guy? It’s more nuanced and generally much better in comparison to the avalanche of vapid American movies that attempt to do political and social commentary and keep failing at it miserably. But the movie relies heavily on dialogue that, unfortunately, most of the time goes something like this: “You did this to me and then I did that, and you said this and then I said that and now I’m doing this.” I imagine there was a need to vocalise the frustration, to say the words out loud, and that delivers the message, at the expense of believability. The most impactful moments that say the most were the silent ones, the ones where conversation is seemingly about nothing, and the interactions with side characters, in the hospital, on the street, in a shop, on a parking lot. If you come from any country where bribe is not only normalised, but expected, at all levels of society, from family to the government, you will feel frustration and bittersweet familiarity. The movie does say something about the complicity of average citizens “just living their life” and average government officials “just doing their job”. It does say something about the culture that enables corruption bottom-up and top-down, for some benefits for the regular people but mostly for their demise. It just says all of that with a little bit too much explaining.