It Was Just an Accident (2025)

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.

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