‘It Was Just an Accident’ Review: Jafar Panahi Gives Human Answers to Complex Moral Conundrums [B] Cannes

Each new film by Jafar Panahi feels like a blessing, especially since the Iranian filmmaker has been subject to prison, house arrests, travel and work bans. Seven years since Three Faces won the Best Screenplay award at Cannes, his latest, It Was Just an Accident premiered in competition in the second half of the festival to laudations and praise. For once though, Panahi doesn’t appear in front of the camera himself, but a group of characters share the lead role. It all revolves around Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri), a formerly imprisoned warehouse owner who—singlehandedly, at first—takes on a quest for revenge against his torturer after an accidental encounter stirs all the suppressed anger. 

Early in the film, a road accident deters a family on their way home to Vahid’s warehouse – a man we assume is some sort of a government official (Ebrahim Azizi), his pregnant wife, and young daughter and this relatively innocent scenario unfolds into a highly loaded chase for justice. The moment Vahid lays eyes on this stranger, he becomes possessed with rage for reasons unknown and it’s only later that the audience is given a chance to catch up with his motives: after he’s stalked, knocked out, and kidnapped the man in the back of his van. 

He even digs a grave for him and in his violent outbursts we get to learn more about Vahid’s backstory – how his fiancé was defiled and killed, how he was arrested for opposing the regime, and repeatedly tortured to confess. Mobasseri is playing a man with nothing to lose; someone who is ready to kill in retribution, but it’s only the stranger’s pleading and insisting on an identity mix-up that challenges Vahid’s perception.

So begins the search for witnesses, ex inmates who have also been tortured by the same person named Eghbal, or ‘Peg leg’ to signify his prosthetic leg. Vahid goes to journalist turned wedding photographer Shiva (Mariam Afshari) for help and after initial resistance, she agrees to see the captive for herself. Doubtful as she is, she brings in three more people into the mix: the bride (Hadis Pakbaten), the groom (Majid Panahi), and what seems to be her eruptive ex, Hamid (Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr). Soon, these five people will be able to face their torturer (whether or not it’s actually him) and voice their suffering in the hands of the State. 

A Simple Accident is at its core a philosophical film, or a film that philosophizes: not only does it ask ethical questions about revenge, retribution, violence, and non-violence, but it also provides an answer to the survivor’s ethical dilemma. Namely, the film (through its five lead characters) proposes different ways of dealing with the immense pain they’ve been left to carry, as well as the ever-present stings of injustice and abuse. In the many conversations the five have about whether or not the captive is indeed Eghbal, they all get to share their testimonies. 

Each of them delivers a monologue with all the gruesome details of various torturing methods and the terrifying inventiveness of the man in charge – and in these enunciations, there is something to be gained. Although all of them have resumed their life in quiet, the wounds inside are still oozing.

As the protagonists mourn their lost freedoms and lives through screams, breakdowns, and fights, the film makes its statement: revenge is never neat or healing, but it is the bravery of allowing oneself to pursue it in the first place, that one can rewrite their own narrative. The powerful performances and the intent, high-strung line deliveries within a realist, minimalist film set-up echo throughout the film. With It Was Just an Accident, Panahi doesn’t try to simplify a complex ethical conundrum, but leaves it to humans to figure it out the only way they can – collectively, united in their reclaimed strength. 

Grade: B

This review is from the 2025 Cannes Film Festival where It Was Just an Accident premiered In Competition. NEON will release the film theatrically in the U.S.