IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT
(director/writer: Jafar Panahi; cinematographer: Amin Jafari; editor: Amir Etminan; cast: Vahid Mobasseri (Vahid), Mariam Afshari (Shiva), Ebrahim Azizi (Eghbal), Hadis Pakbaten (Goli), Majid Panahi (Ali), Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr (Hamid), Delmaz Najafi (Eghbal’s daughter), Georges Hashemzadeh (Salar, elderly bookstore clerk), Afssaneh Najmabadi (Eghbal’s wife Azam); Runtime: 105; MPAA Rating: PG-13; producers: Jafar Panahi, Philippe Martin; Neon; 2025-Iran/France/ Luxembourg-in Persian, with English subtitles)
“A masterful revenge thriller.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
The courageous and great Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi (“The White Balloon”/”No Bears”), censored and imprisoned numerous times by his country’s repressive totalitarian Islamic regime, directs and writes a masterful revenge thriller that presents a complex morality dilemma evolving from a simple story that resonates about political prisoners treated so badly by their country when imprisoned that it makes them seek revenge when freed.
On a dark country road at night, on the outskirts of Tehran, a car hits and kills a stray dog. The young girl in the backseat (Delmaz N ajafi) freaks out, as her pregnant mom (Afssaneh Najmabadi) naively tries to soothe her by telling her this must be part of God’s plan. The girl says “God had nothing to do with it.” The driver is the girl’s father Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi), who remains quiet and deep in thought while his wife comforts his daughter.
The car is brought in the next day for repairs to the garage of Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri). After the car is repaired, Vahid follows Eghbal and kidnaps him. Vahid reveals that he believes Eghbal was the intelligence officer who tortured him when he was a political prisoner, as he recognizes his limp. But when Eghbal says he got the wrong man and says his name is Rashid, Vahid who was blindfolded when tortured, feels he needs someone else to confirm if he got the right man.
Vahid leaves his prisoner lying unconscious in the back of his van, as he searches for another tortured prisoner for confirmation. This leads him to the wedding photographer Shiva (Mariam Afshari) and the young couple soon to be married Goli (Hadis Pakbaten) and Ali (Majid Panahi), who are being photographed by her. The volatile Hamid (Ali Elyasmehr), the former lover of Shiva, is around and wants to kill Eghbal immediately as payback for when he tortured him, but is restrained by the others who loudly argue among themselves on what to do with their peg leg captive.
The point of the film is to show how living under a despotic regime can turn even decent people into doing inhuman things. Panahi is not concerned if the kidnapper got the right party, only that the vics of an oppressive regime don’t become bestial like their enemy while taking necessary action against their oppressors.
The bleak and mordantly humorous conventional film, with all the female characters in modern western dress and the non-professional actors doing a good job reflecting on Panahi’s critical concerns about the current horrors taking place in his troubled homeland. It ends without closure, but with a defiant call by Panahi for taking proper action against the oppressors. Panahi can’t resist taunting the hostile regime, making sure he’s still on their radar as a spokesman for a democracy.
It played at the Cannes Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 10/10/2025 GRADE: A-
dennisschwartzreviews.com