Foi Apenas um Acidente

I really hope Panahi watches his back cause boy oh boy does he upset the Iranian regime... I mean the topic of this story IS the reason to watch it. People demanding their rights are suppressed, held up hostage, tortured, terrified and traumatized for the rest of their lives.

As for the movie it's a little too loose and as expected of Panahi very talky. The characters are a motley crew of personalities, behaviours, compulsions and obsessions. And damn all these people pick their pockets dry just cause there's a bride. And a newborn. Tipping culture (sorry gift giving) run amok.

Frankly wasn't high up there with the rest of his celebrated movies.

But I really did not expect the twist in the story, I really thought these guys were just crazy. And I found the ending very uncomfortable. But maybe the best choice cause it makes sense for this type of world.

Iran is producing some of the best modern filmmakers working today, yet sadly, it is not reaping its artistic rewards. Many of these directors are choosing to leave the theocracy and make films elsewhere-or film in secret, risking imprisonment from censors. Last year brought the brilliant Oscar-nominated The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024), smuggled out of Iran by its now-exiled director Mohammad Rasoulof into Germany. This year, we have a similar case: Jafar Panahi, jailed for his filmmaking for years, delivers with It Was Just an Accident (2025), this year's Palme d'Or winner at Cannes, produced in France instead.

It Was Just an Accident takes place in Iran, where Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri), a car mechanic, suspects that a limping client (Ebrahim Azizi) who appears one night is his former torturer from when he was jailed for protesting unpaid wages. In an impulsive act, Vahid kidnaps the man, but just before he's ready to exact his revenge, doubt creeps in. Is he sure this is the right man? The film then follows Vahid as he seeks out former inmates who might identify his hostage, while also risking their own thirst for vengeance spinning out of control.

Panahi has long specialized in moral and societal dilemmas condensed into intimate settings. His previous film, No Bears (2022), followed an Iranian filmmaker harassed by censors and threatened with jail time, while his surrounding community watched passively. In It Was Just an Accident, Panahi explores the lives of the formerly incarcerated, honoring the permanent scars they carry even after walking free. Yet the film also poses the question of vengeance; its value, its futility, and its moral cost.

Panahi himself has much to resent, especially toward the jailers who suppressed his voice, art, and physical liberty for years. Yet It Was Just an Accident approaches injustice and cruelty not with wrath or righteous fury, but with empathy and moral ambiguity. The doubt that consumes Vahid-and infects viewers as they watch-is central to Panahi's humane perspective. Even as the film oscillates between convincing us of the suspect's guilt and innocence, we're left wondering whether even the death of a guilty man would bring peace or justice.

The film's moral debate unfolds through a chorus of former prisoners, each embodying a different response to trauma: from the wrathful to the despairing to the willfully ignorant. This ensemble finds coherence through Vahid, brilliantly embodied by Mobasseri, whose shifting expressions mirror our own uncertainty. At moments, Panahi even flirts with dark comedy, highlighting the absurdity of vengeance taken too far.

Panahi once again demonstrates his mastery of cinematic craft. He edits most scenes within a take or two, with the film's climax running nearly ten minutes uncut; a stunning showcase of confident blocking, lighting, and performance. The balance between darkness and absurdity, tragedy and irony, is handled with such precision that each tonal shift feels organic rather than jarring.

In the end, It Was Just an Accident stands as another example of the great cinema that Iran's repression is paradoxically inspiring and tragically missing out on. Panahi delivers an entertaining yet deeply thought-provoking moral drama, keeping viewers on edge with his fluid command of tone, performance, and storytelling. One can only hope his meditation on vengeance and empathy resonates far beyond the screen, especially among the world's leaders today.

A pervasive, persistent wave of dread courses through this propulsive 2025 revenge thriller, but what impressed me even more was the courage director/screenwriter Jafar Panahi displays throughout this engrossing film. Imprisoned several times over for his ongoing criticism of the corrupt Iranian government, Panahi has crafted a character-driven plot that follows a motley group of former Iranian political prisoners, each one reacting viscerally when faced with a moral dilemma as they believe their tormentor Eghbal ("Peg Leg") has reentered their lives. First, there's Vahid, an auto mechanic who upon this discovery, starts to bury him alive, but then his conscience leads him to seek out other victims who could validate Eghbal's identity. That includes Shiva, a wedding photographer Vahid has never met before; Goli and Ali, a betrothed couple; and Shiva's hotheaded former business partner Hamid. The non-professional cast is uniformly strong with standout turns from Vahid Mobasseri with the fullest character arc as Vahid and Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr as Hamid whose out-of-control outbursts instill genuine fear. The film climaxes dramatically with a single shot held for 12 minutes uninterrupted. A most uniquely compelling story told with surprising compassion.

• Watched at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) one Sept. 13, 2025 (First Watch)
• Format: Regular theatre
• Rating: 8.5/10

It Was Just an Accident starts off with a heavy and confusing situation. But the deeper you get into it, the more intense and emotional it becomes. Director Panahi fills the movie with small details that tie back to the title. Most of what happens in the story feels like an "accident," but those accidents carry a lot of meaning. I especially liked how stray dogs kept showing up-they weren't random, but connected to different characters and the film's bigger message.

The story follows five people whose lives cross. What they all share is one thing: a hunger for revenge. The movie doesn't use flashbacks or jump back in time. Instead, it tells the story through long takes, monologues, and conversations. This makes the acting even more powerful. Vahid Mobasseri really stood out-his expressions and body language brought so much tension to the screen. And that final shot at the end... it was the perfect way to close the film.

There's no music at all in the movie, which at first felt strange. But then I realized that the silence made it feel more real and raw, almost like you were right there with the characters. My only small complaint is that the first hour is a bit slow, and some people might lose interest early on. But if you stick with it, the payoff in the end is worth it.

It's supposedly meant to be a powerful film, and I do acknowledge its historical and political importance. But it simply didn't move me.

All the doubt and tension set up at the beginning seems to dissolve into mildly comic situations that never quite become truly funny.

The secondary characters come across as caricatures, and I couldn't bring myself to care about them.

In the final part-which I had expected to be dramatic and genuinely impactful-I found myself only wondering where it was all supposed to lead. The acting felt forced and didn't moved me.

Within minutes, people who were determined to kill suddenly give up in a comical outburst, and a villain suddenly seems to have a change of heart.

I really wanted to like this movie.