---
title: "It Was Just an Accident (2025) review"
description: "Stagecoach for former political prisoners."
url: https://www.joekarlsson.com/reviews/it-was-just-an-accident/
---

![A still from It Was Just an Accident (2025)](https://www.joekarlsson.com/images/reviews/it-was-just-an-accident/backdrop.webp)

# It Was Just an Accident (2025)

Jan 15, 2026 | Rated 4.5 out of 5 | Dir. Jafar Panahi

Stagecoach for former political prisoners.

It Was Just an Accident is deceptively light - basically a whodunit thriller with former torture victims debating whether they’ve found one of their captors. The drama comes from how differently each of them is processing their trauma, their grief, their rage, and how they want to move forward with their lives. Some want answers. Some want blood. Some just want to forget.

The more I read about this film, the more I understand how deeply personal it was for Jafar Panahi. He was imprisoned by the Iranian government and spent most of his time in solitary confinement. When he was released, he was blindfolded, which caused him to hyperfocus on the sounds of his captors - their voices, their footsteps. Later, in prison, he listened to other prisoners argue about how to fight back against the government. All of that is in this movie.

I was shocked at how funny it is. How tense it works as a thriller - did they get the right guy or not? And then the final act rips everything open and asks: what does getting revenge even do? Should we seek it against individuals, or against the system at large?

I thought I knew how I felt going into this. A day later, I don’t have answers anymore. But I suppose that’s the point.

It took me a while to understand what this movie was doing. Once it got rolling, I was fully on board.

Also on [Letterboxd](https://letterboxd.com/joekarlsson/film/it-was-just-an-accident/)

## Works on My Machine

Get the next post by email. My newsletter covers homelab builds, AI tools and open source, and it goes out when I have something to say.

It's free, and you can unsubscribe anytime. You'll get an email to confirm first.

![Joe Karlsson at his desk, chin on hand, with a microphone in front of him](https://www.joekarlsson.com/images/about/collage/studio.webp)

Joe  
Karlsson

I write about my homelab, AI tools, databases, and the weird stuff I build on the side.

[More about me →](https://www.joekarlsson.com/about/)

[Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/joekarlsson.com) | [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/joekarlsson/) | [GitHub](https://github.com/JoeKarlsson)