Cannes 2025 (Palme d’Or): It Was Just An Accident (dir. Jafar Panahi) | Review
Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or winning film investigates the tortured souls of the oppressed through a moral conundrum.
In Jafar Panahi’s 2022 film No Bears, a simple act of taking a photo causes a domino effect of a moral dilemma between a villager’s marriage and Panahi’s human rights prohibiting him from making films in Iran and leaving there. In his latest film, It Was Just An Accident (Un simple accident), Panahi yet again proposes a similar concept, albeit a symbolic one that explores morality and humanity as a prisoner of his own country. Winner of the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Panahi presents an apprehensive story of the complexity of revenge and redemption through a kidnapping and the road movie genre .
Beginning with a family, they drive in the total darkness of the Iranian desert, where they suddenly hit a stray dog, whimpering to remain alive. After the father decides to end the dog’s life, they head into Vahid’s auto shop and Vahid notices a strange sound. Another whimpering of sorts, but a squeaking sound that recalls a past memory, causing him to clandestinely follow the father the next day, eventually kidnapping him, locking him in a box in his van to meet his potential demise. Strictly in showing, but not telling, these simple devices of a simple incident and gestures of listening and looking propels the narrative of tension and mystery.
After unsuccessful attempts at coercing the father to identify himself, it is revealed that Vahid is looking to confirm that this father is Eghbal, a prison inspector who tortured Vahid in the past for his protest, supporting workers’ rights in Iran many years ago. Essentially the main event that ruined Vahid’s life, he gathers a few victims to verify Eghbal’s identity, where the film enters a dialogue heavy discussion of the moral spectrum of handling this affair. This group’s journey shows numerous perspectives on Eghbal’s potential outcome, from burying him alive to letting him go due to his family. After countless arguments, the group is left with only two, Vahid and Shiva, who confront the tied-up Eghbal in a rage-filled melt down.
In addition to the wide-ranging discussions, Panahi’s camera work astutely frames the matter at hand, panning horizontally during long takes, causing an uncertainty between characters’ motivations, as well as the characters’ movements when the camera is still, circling around the issues at hand. Panahi’s formal approaches become more potent as dialogue and scenes are drawn out, allowing both the characters and audiences to contemplate the humanity within us using these dynamic, yet subtle techniques.
Revenge or forgiveness? Hate or love? As Panahi was confined in an Iranian prison for seven months in 2023, his time spent is the foundation for the film in Panahi’s outlook and questioning towards the authoritarian regime. Does the violence breed violence? Will there ever be a change in the system? Do the characters in the film ever find satisfaction within themselves after their decision, whether it be revenge or forgiveness? With much more questions rather than answers, It Was Just An Accident’s psychological exploration of the tortured Iranians delves into complex nuances that leaves us perplexed. It’s his most bittersweet film, seeing the light in ourselves while always being in the darkness.
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