It Was Just an Accident is a 2025 thriller, written and directed by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi. It had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, where it won the Palme d’Or, and has been selected as the French entry for Best International Feature at the coming Oscars. The film was shown at the London Film Festival in October and was released in the UK yesterday, 6 December.

It Was Just an Accident follows Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) who quite by chance has come across the man who tormented his life whilst he was incarcerated by the Iranian authorities as a political prisoner: Eghbal, also known as ‘pegleg’ (Ebrahim Azizi). Seeking revenge, Vahid takes Eghbal hostage. However, not absolutely certain he has the right man, he then travels around Tehran in a van with his tormentor safely secured in the back, gathering a disparate group of former prisoners in an attempt to confirm Eghbal’s identity.

This is a film about state-sponsored torture and its long-lasting effects, both physical and mental, on the victims. Consequently, one would expect a dark harrowing film. However, whilst the story is dark and, I have no doubt, will remain with me for a very long time, Panahi’s touch is extremely light and there is a good deal of comedy, almost slapstick, in what becomes a ‘round-Tehran-road-movie’. Some of the interactions with those who are not directly involved in the story are genuinely laugh-out-loud funny. And surely it is this juxtaposition which deservedly won the Palme d’Or. The light and shade within the storytelling takes what could have been a horrific revenge-thriller and makes it a film about the very nature of what it is to be human.

I first saw this film at the LFF. The cinema was full and there was an air of expectation verging on excitement – the audience responded with laughter, which I am sure was the director’s intention. I saw the film again yesterday at the National Film and Media Museum in Bradford. There were nine or ten people in the audience – nobody laughed. Consequently, it felt much darker.

I strongly recommend It Was Just an Accident. It is a beautifully made film, full of heart and humanity, and yet it is a timely reminder that in the west we live in something of a protective bubble.

Incidentally, whilst away from Iran this week promoting the film at the Marrakech International Film Festival in Morocco, Jafar Panahi has been sentenced to a one-year prison term on charges of propaganda against the state. He will serve the term on his return to Iran. He is no stranger to Iranian prisons and, as a proud Iranian, he will return and he will serve his sentence.