Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident, this year’s Palme d’Or winner, is another clandestinely crafted work from the Iranian director, and another that explores the moral ambiguities of revenge in a surprisingly light and engaging ways. Rather than taking a grim or heavy-handed approach, Panahi shapes it as a kind of comedy of errors, sprinkled with understated, never-distracting humor. It genuinely becomes fun to watch, with a surprising amount of jokes, yet beneath its surface runs a thoughtful study of trauma and guilt.
Panahi has total control over tone and escalation. It begins small as a car hits a dog and has to go to the mechanic, and builds continuously until a group of people, including one in a bridal gown, is pushing a broken-down van down the road. I won’t spoil the specifics; both the title and the logline are intentionally vague. What I will say is that the situation becomes more absurd by the minute, without ever losing its emotional grounding. The script is sharp, the pacing tight, and the ensemble cast keeps adding new shades to the central dilemma. The film is also extremely smart in how it introduces certain characters early on to make the moral dilemma even harder to untangle.
Amid all the absurdity and character-driven comedy, the film asks some difficult questions and avoids easy answers. What if they’re wrong? Are they as bad as the man they condemn? And if they’re right, how far should they go? What happens to those caught in the middle? It Was Just An Accident keeps things vague enough to let you draw your own lines, just like the characters must.
It’s also impossible to watch this without thinking of Panahi’s own reality. He was imprisoned again shortly before the premiere, and much like No Bears, this film feels deeply personal. You can sense him wrestling with what it means to seek justice without perpetuating harm. By the end, the characters are simply exhausted, and rightly so. You feel the toll this kind of moral burden takes.
If there’s one misstep, it’s the final confrontation. A key monologue doesn’t land as powerfully as it should, and the repeated fake slap comes off a bit too staged, slightly undercutting an otherwise intense moment. Still, after that scene, the film ends on a piercing final shot which delivers one of the year’s most resonant messages.
Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident tackles justice and revenge with emotional depth and surprising humor, delivering Cannes 2025’s most powerful message. Would I have given it the Palme myself? No, not really. There were two competition titles which I thought were better films. But for broadcasting such a deeply human, honest, and quietly hopeful message, I’m glad A Simple Accident will reach a wider audience.