Jordan Hoffman reviews Jafar Panahi's 'It Was Just an Accident'
The Times of Israel Daily Briefing
The Times of Israel
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 24 January 2026
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to The Reel Schmooze with ToI film reviewer Jordan Hoffman and host Amanda Borschel-Dan, where we bring you all the entertainment news and film reviews a Jew can use.
We update that last week's main movie, "Holding Liat," is now playing in 20 locations throughout North America.
Then we hear a "Jangle" about unabashed Zionist Michael Rapaport, who was just in the news for his participation in "The Traitors."
The first "Schmoovie" of the week is "It Was Just an Accident" by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi. Nominated for two Academy Awards, it is playing internationally at major arthouse theaters.
The premise is roughly based on Panahi's stints in Iranian prisons for his films exposing the oppressive regime. It includes a ragtag group trying to assess if a kidnapped man is indeed their interrogator/torturer. Though the set-up sounds grim, there is plenty of Panahi's trademark wit to keep you thinking -- and chuckling.
The second film discussed is 2015's "Taxi," which was produced during a period in which Panahi was barred from creating films. Smuggled out and screened at the Cannes film festival, the movie takes place in a borrowed taxi and includes an uncredited cast of everyday Iranians -- or are they?
Check out the two "not bad" films (our highest mark) in this week's The Reel Schmooze.
The Reel Schmooze is produced by Ari Schlacht and can be found wherever you get your podcasts.
IMAGE: Director Jafar Panahi poses for a portrait photograph for the film 'It Was Just an Accident' at the 78th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, May 21, 2025. (Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Times of Israel's The Real Shmuse, bringing you all the entertainment news and movie reviews a Jew can use. |
| 0:15.7 | I am your host, Amanda Barshall Dan, here with our movie maven, Jordan Hoffman. |
| 0:21.4 | Jordan, thank you so much for joining me from Smurfland. |
| 0:24.8 | Yeah, I know. |
| 0:25.6 | For the few of you that decide to listen to this podcast on YouTube and can watch, I'm wearing, |
| 0:31.4 | I look like a smurf because it's very cold in my house this morning. |
| 0:34.6 | And I'm wearing, I grabbed the closest hat I could find, I put it on |
| 0:39.1 | and it wasn't until two seconds ago. I said, I looked like a smurf. I looked ridiculous. |
| 0:42.2 | You know, by the time this episode airs, a lot of North America is going to face a kind of an |
| 0:50.2 | unprecedented blizzard in the, in kind of the south like virginia and north carolina are going |
| 0:58.4 | to get hit with potentially two plus feet of snow which they don't they don't know from snow and |
| 1:04.9 | Nashville Tennessee might get two feet of snow you know when buffalo New York gets hit with |
| 1:10.0 | snow it's like what's the big Metsia it's some snow but they don't know from snow, New York gets hit with snow, it's like, what's the |
| 1:10.9 | big Metsia? It's some snow. But they don't know from snow in Nashville. They're going to, it's, I'm joking, I'm sounding joking around, but it could be, it's going to be very dangerous. So it's, it is so dangerous. And when it very rarely snows here, uh, I mean, it doesn't snow exactly where I live, but in Jerusalem, for example, people just |
| 1:27.7 | abandoned their vehicles. |
| 1:29.2 | They have no idea how to drive on a good weather day and then add snow to it. |
| 1:34.3 | It's just terrible. |
| 1:35.5 | Yeah. |
| 1:35.8 | So, yeah, please be careful. |
| 1:37.3 | And let me just repeat that Israeli winters truly a reason to make Alia come to. |
| 1:43.9 | I know. Well, I don't. I'll tell a funny story. So, I a reason to make Alia come to your home. I know. Well, I don't, you know, I'll |
| 1:46.7 | tell a funny story. So as people who listen to this show regularly and who try to connect the dots |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Times of Israel, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Times of Israel and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.