Jafar Panahi’s ‘taut revenge thriller’ becomes frontrunner to take Cannes’ top prize

After years of imprisonment and travel bans in his native Iran, Jafar Panahi returns to Cannes with a furious but funny revenge thriller that takes aim at oppressive regimes and could scoop the Palme d’Or.

The film opens with a long, unbroken, deceptively charming shot of a genial man (Ebrahim Azizi) and his happy, pregnant wife driving in the countryside one evening, with their playful daughter in the back seat. When the car breaks down, the husband persuades a mechanic to tinker with it, but then the mechanic’s rumpled colleague Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) recognises a chilling combination of sounds: the uneven footsteps of someone with a limp, and…