It Was Just An Accident

Directed by Jafar Panahi
Iran, France, Luxembourg
2025
102 mins
Winner of the 2025 Palme d'Or and Sydney Film Prize, Jafar Panahi’s road movie thriller melds moral dilemmas, comic moments and shocking revelations to extraordinary, potent effect.

Despite a range of obstacles, from banning orders to imprisonment, Panahi – the subject of a comprehensive retrospective at SFF this year – remains unfailingly resolute in his determination to make films. “I’m a filmmaker. I can’t do anything else but make films,” he says. It Was Just an Accident begins with a family traveling on an isolated road, where an unfortunate bump in the road leads to their car being slightly damaged. At the repair shop in the middle of the night, a worker observes something that triggers a memory with immense repercussions.

With his new film, Panahi reimagines the Iranian road movie, taking the audience on a thrilling and devastating emotional rollercoaster involving a great ensemble cast. As Panahi says: “I don’t make political films, I make humanistic films.” Here he is at his most humanistic – presenting us with characters whose circumstances might well be very different from our own, but whose dilemmas, and choices between forgiveness and retribution, immerse us fully.

★★★★ Another very impressive serio-comic film from one of the most distinctive and courageous figures in world cinema.
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

Tickets

Sun 17 August 2025, 1pm
Orange - Odeon 5 Cinema - Odeon 5 Cinema
  • Year
    2025
  • Classification
    Unclassified 15+
  • Country
    Iran, France, Luxembourg
  • Director
    Jafar Panahi
  • Producer
    Jafar Panahi, Philippe Martin
  • Cast
    Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi
  • Screenwriter
    Jafar Panahi
  • Cinematographer
    Amin Jafari
  • Genre
    Human Rights, Middle East, Thriller & Crime, Action & Adventure, Cannes Selected
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