Jafar Panahi’s latest film IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT has been nominated for 3 Gotham Awards including Best International Film, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. After winning the top award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the acclaimed film also was selected as an official Academy Award entry for the Best International Film category.

IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT is now playing in select theaters and releases on Friday, October 31, in numerous other major cities including DC, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, Atlanta, San Diego, Boston and Seattle. Updated showtimes and tickets at http://bit.ly/justanaccident.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF04v-ze2Yc

IG: @NeonRated 

SYNOPSIS:

Vahid, an unassuming mechanic, has a chance encounter with Eghbal, a man he strongly suspects to be his former sadistic jailhouse captor. Panicked, Vahid gathers several former prisoners, all abused by that same captor, to try and confirm Eghbal's identity. As the bickering group drives around Tehran with the captive, they must confront how far to take matters into their own hands with their presumed tormentor. From master filmmaker Jafar Panahi comes a searing moral thriller that engages with complex ideas about the uncertainty of the truth and the choice between revenge and mercy, as Panahi turns his personal dissonance into a profound and galvanizing work of art.

Lokvani Review

The film starts innocuously enough – A family of three, a husband, wife, and a little girl, driving in a car on the highway. Yet everything changes when the driver hits and kills a dog. The little girl accuses her father of killing and driving away, and the mother consoles her that it was not deliberate but an accident. The father continues to drive, but it soon breaks down and is taken to a garage for repairs. Here is where the premise of the story progresses: We learn that the man, nicknamed Peg Leg, has a past as a jailor who has tortured many jail inmates for their political beliefs. Coincidentally, the garage mechanic Vahid, where he has taken his car, is one of the tortured victims, and he recognizes him and sets out to take revenge. He kidnaps him and dumps him into a van to avenge his torture, but confusion about his identity propels him to seek out his fellow inmates to help him recognize their perpetrator.

At this juncture, the film weaves a narrative of each person’s point of view – the anger, fury, the dilemma, retribution, and empathy all play a role while they drag the man blindfolded into the night in a van and debate about what to do with him, with varying points of view from each of the five protagonists.

A film can entertain, thrill, terrify, or make you reflect on the world we live in, and the film‘It Was Just an Accident ‘falls in the latter category. Can you truly practice an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth treatment when confronted with harshness or can humanity pause and reflect on how one can practice mercy? The film's moral dilemma is pictured vividly, and the director Jafar Panah deals with the important question of how to reconcile hatred and violence with empathy and civility.

Jafar Panahi, It Was Just an Accident (2025)  set in contemporary Iran is slow-paced and builds up the tension and anxiety of what's next in the story while allowing the audience a chance to dwell in it morality.

Playing in Boston now;  http://bit.ly/justanaccident

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