Festival Review: It Was Just An Accident (dir. Jafar Panahi)

*It Was Just An Accident* (**Memento Distribution** ©)

Plot in a nutshell

When a man, driving his pregnant wife and their 6-year-old daughter, has a small accident on the road one night, he seeks assistance at a nearby store. One of the owners recognizes him as someone from his past, a man who ruined his life. He takes it upon himself to exact revenge, but first he needs to make sure he’s got the right man.

Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident is an emotional account of what it’s like to live with trauma, and how different people deal with their trauma differently. The will it takes to not succumb to baser instincts. The struggle of doing the right thing and getting a sense of justice. What does justice even mean? Choosing to live in the present or letting your past color it entirely. These and so many more questions are tackled in a film brimming with quiet intensity from the first frame to last.

A small accident on the road creates an unexpected chain reaction of events that brings back old memories and traumas for a whole array of characters. As ever with Jafar Panahi, probably the greatest living Iranian filmmaker today, every one of these characters feel real with completely lived experiences. It’s easy to get attached to their stories after only a few exchange of words.

The genius behind the storytelling and the narrative buildup to what will surely be the greatest ending to a film this year also allows for It Was Just An Accident to act as a post mortem on modern Iran, people who are trying to live their lives and get by whilst living under the boot of an oppressive regime. In one of the film’s funniest scenes (yes, with such a sombre subject matter at its core, the film still finds creative ways to be refreshingly light and playful) two security guards exemplify how credit card terminals have replaced guns as the primary means of corruption.

I mentioned how Father Mother Sister Brother shouldn’t be viewed through the lens of its surprising Golden Lion win and I stand by that. It Was Just An Accident is different. Given Jafar Panahi’s personal history and battles against the Iranian regime, every review of it would do well to emphasize how it deservedly won the Palme D’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Taking top honors at the biggest festival will ensure that more people see a film that must be seen by everyone.

Fiction doesn’t get much realer than this.

Screen Reflections

LFF 2025: It Was Just An Accident