Jafar Panahi‘s ‘It was Just an Accident‘ (the original title is ‘Yek tasadof-e sadeh‘) would deserve all the awards for courage and verticality, if they existed at the Academy Awards or international film festivals. The Iranian director, the actors and the technical team of the film faced all possible dangers, making this film in Iran without approvals, without financial support, hiding from the authorities and without any hope that the film would be seen by the audience in their country in the near future. Such awards do not exist, however, and yet the film was awarded the ‘Palme d’Or’ at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and is now a candidate for two Academy Awards (for Best Film in a Foreign Language and for screenplay). Rightly so, in my opinion. ‘It was Just an Accident‘ has multiple cinematic qualities that make it a remarkable film even if we ignore the conditions in which it was made.
One could say it’s a revenge movie, but of a special kind. A simple car accident brings the father of a family to the garage where Vahid works. He recognizes in the voice and footsteps of the man who asked for help to restart his car the torturer who destroyed his life years ago. Yahid follows him and kidnaps him, but when he is about to kill him, he is overcome with doubts. The prisoner denies being that criminal, but he would do so whether he was guilty or innocent. To convince himself of his identity, Yahid calls for help from other former prisoners and victims of the regime’s executioner’s violence. But is he the real culprit? And if he is, do the former victims have the right to take justice into their own hands and respond to the violence they suffered through the ultimate violence of revenge?
The film presents the characters and the audience with moral dilemmas that cannot have an easy answer. The executioners of the dictatorship have no chance of being punished as long as the system that protects them remains in power, but does that justify violent revenge? The most beautiful scenes of the film are those in which the group of men and women, victims of repression, debate the reason for revenge and at the same time show humanity towards the family of the alleged executioner. The ending is surprising and has a great dose of implausibility in my opinion. This only slightly detracts from the value of the film, which benefits from a doco-minimalist filming style that does not lack symbols and intelligent solutions, and from the nuanced and natural interpretation of an exceptional team of actors, among whom I cannot fail to mention Vahid Mobasseri in the lead role and Mariam Afshari, an actress of great expressiveness. ‘It was Just an Accident‘ is much braver and more direct than many other Iranian films, but it retains the subtlety and complexity of the masters of this cinematic school that I can’t stop admiring.