Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s latest effort It Was Just an Accident is an impassioned, morally fluid, darkly comedic thriller. Dabbling in genre work is a change of pace for Panahi (Taxi, No Bears, This is Not a Film), but It Was Just an Accident is no less observational and thoughtful in its look at everyday Iranian people stuck in extraordinary situations. It’s fascinating, haunting, and close to a career best work for one of this generation’s finest filmmakers.
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It starts with the death of a dog. Driving home late one night with his pregnant wife and daughter, Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi) accidentally strikes an animal, finding themselves in need of a service station to fix their car. With the help of a passing motorcyclist, Eghbal and his family are brought to a garage owned by Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri), a former political prisoner. Vahid finds himself shaken by the squeaking sound of Eghbal’s prosthetic leg, something that takes him back to a period where he was routinely tortured by an intelligence officer whose fake limb made a nearly identical noise. Seeking revenge for his trauma (which includes lifelong kidney pain), Vahid stalks Eghbal, eventually kidnapping him with plans on burying him alive in the desert. Eghbal pleads for his life, insisting he wasn’t Vahid’s aggressor. Doubt creeps into Vahid’s mind. After all, he was always blindfolded when being tortured and beaten, so all he has to go on is the noise of the prosthesis. Before he moves forward, Vahid seeks the advice of other former prisoners to help identify Eghbal as the guard.
It Was Just an Accident opens and closes in chilling places, with Panahi’s bracing and uncomfortable long take climax emerging as the best thing the director has ever done. But along the way, It Was Just an Accident parses how violence, mistrust, and state sanctioned brutality can forever warp someone’s identity and sense of safety. Panahi (a noteworthy political prisoner himself, who also employs performers with close ties to similar situations) knows that audiences have seen narratives about the futility of revenge before, and instead uses a similar story to examine his country’s broken political system. Each of Vahid’s co-conspirators bring their own opinions and baggage to the situation, and while their moral compasses point in similar directions, the degree to which they’ve been broken alters their perception.
These people are in too deep, letting emotion take the wheel and performing the same acts of violence unto another (possibly undeserving) person they had done to them; trying to force him into confessing to something he might not’ve done while under great duress. In one key scene It Was Just an Accident references Samuel Beckett’s famous play Waiting for Godot, and the point of comparison is spot on, albeit with more fatal consequences for all involved. When people start debating what to do with Eghbal, Panahi allows things to get somewhat comedic, but no less bleak, with the director allowing his performers to shape the direction of a scene; filling empty spaces with an astounding depth of feeling, grief, and bitterness. It Was Just an Accident isn’t a hopeful movie, but it’s an eye opening one that stands among Panahi’s very best.
Tuesday, September 9, 2025 – 8:45 pm – Royal Alexandra Theatre
Wednesday, September 10, 2025 – 3:30 pm – Scotiabank Theatre 1
Saturday, September 13, 2025 – 9:15 pm – Scotiabank Theatre 14
