It Was Just an Accident (Yek tasadof-e sadeh)
A man, nicknamed Eghbal, is driving at night with his wife and daughter when he hits and kills a dog. The accident badly damages his engine and causes the car to later break down. He pulls over to a nearby garage, encountering a former political prisoner named Vahid, who recognizes the squeaking sound of Eghbal's prosthetic leg as that of an intelligence officer who tortured him in prison and caused him permanent kidney damage.
Vahid stalks Eghbal to his house, kidnaps him, and prepares to bury him alive, but grows doubtful about the man's identity since he was blindfolded and had never seen his torturer's face. He reaches out to a fellow ex-prisoner for confirmation, and meets up with the bookseller Salar, wedding photographer Shiva, bride Goli, groom Ali, and angry worker Hamid. Riding around day and night, Vahid's van is occupied by these victims all seeking revenge on the man who brutally abused them. During their ride, they contemplate the morality of killing their captive and whether he actually is who they believe him to be.
Directed by the most artistically and commercially successful Iranian filmmaker alive, Jafar Panahi, It Was Just An Accident won this year’s prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
It is undoubtedly Panahi's most straightforward film in a long time. No effect or meta observations are in the way of its narrative which forges ahead, anger as its fuel.
Are the members of this group, laden with panic and amateurism in the art of kidnapping, but deadly serious about retribution, really capable or even willing to become executioners themselves? With intellectual honesty, Panahi acknowledge the complexity of the issue, notably by not being afraid to confront its share of grotesque absurdity. Yes, the film is, often, quite funny, in addition to being a defiant rebuke of authoritarianism that delivers the entertainment value of a gripping thriller.
Winner of the 2025 Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
This film will also screen as part of Super Cine Saturday at Cork County venues.
