As I’ve expressed on this blog before, I’m a huge fan of Iranian cinema. I saw quite a few movies in 2025, and Iranian filmmakers gave the world two of the best — Jafar Pahani’s anti-revenge masterpiece “It Was Just an Accident” and the Oscar nominated documentary “Cutting Through Rocks” by Sara Khaki and Mohammad Reza Enhi.

If I’ve learned anything from Iranian cinema over the years, it’s that the Iranian people are wonderful and resilient — and the country they live in is incredibly complicated.

And so I’m trying to sit with some highly contradictory images I’m seeing from Iran right now. The positive part of the story can be viewed in some videos currently available on the New York Times website, scenes of Iranians waking up to the news of Khamenei’s death and celebrating. I’m glad that Iranians feel a sense of relief from the end of his reign. I hope these good feelings continue.

I contrast this with what Al Jazeera is showing me. There, I’m fed lots of reports about solemn Iranian responses to the death, the 40 days of mourning and 7 holidays declared across the country. I see shots of big groups of people loyal to the regime — some devoutly religious, others who have invested their lives in attaining their livelihoods through the regime.

Iranian cinema has taught me that both sets of images are true. These stories play out daily in Iranian life. Sometimes the result is conflict, sometimes compromise, sometimes resignation.

But these mixed feelings, desires and necessities are genuine. They cannot be resolved easily. No Iranian film, by the way, dares to resolve them with simplicity and shortcuts.

My best hope is that the glorious ending of “It Was Just an Accident” is prophetic — that the Iranian people will reject another cycle of violence, that they find a peaceful middle path that will lead to a more pluralistic culture without having a civil war.

They will not find the way to a better future through continued bombing or with American troops on the ground. And I’m genuinely worried that very dark times might be ahead.

But I just want to be clear — I’m rooting for the Iranian people and I hope they find a path to lasting peace and greater freedom.