Closing Gala: It Was Just an Accident

Jafar Panahi was released from prison in Iran in 2023 following international protests and a hunger strike. It Was Just an Accident, his first film after his release, became a sensation, winning the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. The intense film radiates Panahi’s fury at those in power in his homeland. It’s a truly outstanding work: a tight, gripping, moving, and at times darkly funny package.

A family of three hits a dog while driving, and the father takes the car to a repair shop. One of the workers, Vahid, is struck by a sound he cannot mistake: the clunk of a prosthetic leg. He’s convinced the man who just walked in is the torturer he never saw during his time in prison. On impulse, Vahid kidnaps the man, locking him in his car trunk and driving off into the desert. Revenge is sweet—but why does the man refuse to admit he knows him? Vahid seeks out a friend who was tortured by the same man to confirm the identity. Still plagued by doubt, they gather more witnesses, including a bride and groom in full wedding attire.

This misfit group’s botched journey of revenge takes on increasingly absurd tones, but the message remains clear: things are not well in Iran. Panahi’s fearless and politically charged new film plunges the viewer into complex moral questions and asks: what is justified in the face of great injustice?

Inari Ylinen