It Was Just an Accident (2025)

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It Was Just an Accident (2025) – J. Panahi 

Jafar Panahi’s 2025 Palme d’Or winner is admittedly not an easy watch, despite its use of comedy to cut its tension. That comedy made me think of Waiting for Godot before it was inevitably mentioned by the characters themselves (it is comedy rooted in absurdity). The parallel is that these characters spend the entire movie pondering whether the one-legged man they have captured really is or is not their former torturer – but they can’t know for certain because all of them were blindfolded during their time in prison as political dissidents (or simply people who ran afoul of the State). Panahi himself has spent time in prison in Iran and has been banned from making films there, but still has found ways to complete his projects, outlaw style.  Where in the past he has criticised the government for their treatment of women and their violations of human rights more broadly, here it feels more personal – a bitter recitation of the terrible injustices inflicted on innocent civilians by their own government. The plot feels like a loose framework (they drive around Tehran in a van seeking to find others who can identify their captive) to allow the characters to speak their truths, directly to the audience. Only late in the film, in a scene shot entirely in red filtered lights, do we hear a version of the government’s response, that political opposition can’t be allowed because it undermines support for the revolution.  This seems to be the hallmark of those who know that their power is invalid, without support of the people as a whole.  Yet Panahi’s message is that, despite the injustices and horror wielded against them, protesters must maintain the moral high ground, as it is in empathy, social justice, and respect for human rights, even of those who transgress against us, where strength lies.