Film Review: It Was Just An Accident
The 2025 Cannes' Palme Winner
INTRODUCTION
This is a quick review of the newly released film It Was Just An Accident. Please note that this is just one of the many movies I will have watched each year, and my initial grade for this film may change over time, for better or worse. To stay up to date on my thoughts about other movies and any potential changes in my opinion on this one, follow me on Letterboxd.
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PLOT
Via Letterboxd: Vahid, an Azerbaijani auto mechanic, was once imprisoned by Iranian authorities. During his sentence, he was interrogated blindfolded. One day, a man named Eghbal enters his workshop. His prosthetic leg creaks, and Vahid thinks he recognizes one of his former torturers.
REVIEW
In what continues to be a disturbing trend with Iranian filmmakers, Jafar Panahi had to make his latest film in the aftermath of being unjustifiably arrested, resulting in him shooting it in secret, not unlike what happened last year with Mohammad Rasoulof and The Seed of the Sacred Fig, a film I really liked and even had on my International Feature ballot for nomination. Panahi has gotten his revenge in the most artistic way possible as his newest film, It Was Just an Accident, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, won the Palme d’Or, and has now been selected as France’s submission for the Oscars’ International Feature category.
Being in the market that I’m in, I have to wait longer than most of my colleagues across the country to see these international contenders, and you can’t escape the fact that this is one of the best-reviewed films of the year, with genuine Oscar chatter in major categories like Best Picture and Best Director. And I will say, after finally seeing it, I understand the intense passion surrounding it. But at the end of the day, I have to assess my own experience with the film, separate from the months of universal praise I’ve watched roll in.
And my experience has left me conflicted about exactly where I stand after this first viewing. I know I like it, a lot, actually. There’s a tremendous amount to admire here. But I’m still processing whether I love it enough for it to break into my absolute favorites of the year. It might! But I’m not fully ready to declare that just yet.
Let me start with what really worked for me. The writing is dynamite, easily one of my favorite Original Screenplays of the year. Whether it’s the heated back-and-forth between our protagonists over whether they’ve captured the right man, or the incredible one-take sequence toward the end where an interrogation leaves the audience breathless, the screenplay is consistently gripping.
The movie is unflinching in its tension. The premise alone is stressful as these characters have kidnapped someone who may have the power to get them executed. There’s tension in the environment, as seen in a standout scene where the police question our protagonists and end up bullying them into paying a bribe. And there’s tension among the characters themselves, each of whom holds their own deeply personal, tragic link to the man they believe tortured them years ago. Their constant bickering over what to do creates a pressure-cooker atmosphere. And yet, somehow, the film still finds moments of levity that let the audience momentarily breathe.
I’m on the borderline of giving this an A-, but I’m still wrestling with a couple of nitpicks that are holding me back. One is that, at a certain point, the constant debating over what to do with their captive starts to overstay its welcome, causing the plot to spin its wheels until it course-corrects in the final fifteen minutes. The other is that some of the choices made in the finale left me feeling as if a good chunk of what we just went through was, in a way, all for naught.
All in all, this film’s very existence is a testament to Panahi’s courage. It’s sharply written and has something meaningful to say. But I’m also questioning how rewatchable it is, and I’m genuinely conflicted about some of the narrative decisions leading into the finale. Ultimately, I find myself in a tough spot where I may eventually bump this up into my “Best of the Year” range, but for now, as I continue to digest it, I’m giving it a super solid, very strong B+. It’s no accident how well-made this film is.
“TL;DR”
Pros: Brave filmmaking that directly goes after authoritarianism; Somehow pulls off moments of levity within all the tension; Riveting dialogue that makes its Screenplay among the best of the year
Cons: There is a moment in time in the film in which I started to feel like it was starting to spin its wheels a bit; Some decisions made in the third act kinda’ left me stump on how much the events of the rest of the film actually mattered; Left my first viewing completely confused as to whether I really liked this or borderline loved it - I’m still processing and digesting it
GRADING
