It Was Just an Accident (2025)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
A man, nicknamed Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi), is driving at night with his wife and daughter when he hits and kills a dog. The accident badly damages his engine and causes the car to later break down. He pulls over to a nearby garage, encountering a former political prisoner named Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri), who recognizes the squeaking sound of Eghbal's false leg as that of an intelligence officer who tortured him in prison and caused him permanent kidney damage. Vahid stalks Eghbal to his house, kidnaps him, and prepares to bury him alive, but grows doubtful about the man's identity since he was blindfolded and had never seen his torturer's face. He reaches out to a fellow ex-prisoner for confirmation, and meets up with the bookseller Salar, wedding photographer Shiva (Mariam Afshari), bride Goli (Hadis Pakbaten), groom Ali (Majid Panahi), and angry worker Hamid (Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr). Riding around day and night, Vahid's van is occupied by these victims all seeking revenge on the man who brutally abused them. During their ride, they contemplate the morality of killing their captive and whether he actually is who they believe him to be. - Actors:
- Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr, Delmaz Najafi, Afssaneh Najmabadi, George Hashemzadeh
- Directors:
- Jafar Panahi
- Producers:
- Philippe Martin, Jafar Panahi
- Writers:
- Jafar Panahi
- Aka:
- Det var bara en olycka
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Drama, Thrillers
- Countries:
- Iran
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Reviews (1) of It Was Just an Accident
The Sound of a Creaking Conscience - It Was Just an Accident review by griggs
Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident begins with a bump in the road — literally. A man hits a dog on a dark Iranian highway, and from that small mistake spirals a chain of guilt, corruption, and quiet fury. What starts as a roadside mishap turns into a grotesque moral farce: bribes tapped on card readers, weddings collapsing, and the long shadow of state violence falling over every polite exchange.
Panahi directs with the poise of a man long practised at evading censors — sly, unflinching, and darkly amused by power’s absurd theatre. His characters drift between tragedy and farce, like citizens rehearsing the same lie for different audiences.
It Was Just an Accident is mordant, chaotic, and painfully human — a parable of control and complicity disguised as chance. In Panahi’s Iran, even the accidents feel designed.