This year's Palme d’Or winner has finally made its way to me, and it was well worth the wait.
Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident premiered back in May 2025 at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the coveted top prize. A film whose message transcends the walls of the theatre, the new feature of a director who has publicly and loudly opposed its country’s authorities for years, resulting in imprisonment and a very recent one-year prison sentence and a travel ban.
It Was Just an Accident sets off with the accidental meeting of a former political prisoner (Vahid Mobasseri) and who he believes to be a particularly demonic prison officer, recognised by the sound of his prosthetic leg. What follows is an impulsive move and the collection of former inmates to help Vahid confirm whether the man is indeed the infamous “Eghbal”.
As much as the premise hints at a heavy, nightmare-based film? The sinister narrative is unexpectedly counter-balanced by comedic situations in which each character’s encounter gets stuck. The tone after the initial shock shifts to a race against time sort of chase, where multiple dilemmas are explored in a truly darkly hilarious way. A couple bickering in the middle of wedding rehearsals, running after the friend of a friend for information we don’t even need anymore, but are still stuck purchasing, characters arguing indefinitely and senselessly to end up where they started.
An unexpected crowd-pleaser where Panahi leads a perfect popcorn movie tone, but creates then an immaculate turnaround into the serious reality those characters experience while imprisoned. Because It Was Just an Accident’s brilliance comes with how, in all the comedic nonsense, the distressing events that led to it are never once forgotten. The characters appear as even more human, using humour as shields to combat a suddenly resurfaced traumatic memory. Choosing the road of comedy rather than a tragic drama allows enough breathing room for the character to fully develop beyond that one shared past, and for the audience fully immerse itself and grapple with the gravity of the eventual denouement. Because the film is a ticking bomb, with every joke comes another minute of wondering how this group could get away with abducting a person, even more so if he is indeed revealed to be Eghbal. An underlying tension remains, one which threatens to be overwhelming but never crosses that line due to the immaculate balancing of tones.
It Was Just an Accident particularly shines through its ensemble cast, whose chemistry and line deliveries delight the screen, but also, and probably more so, by its sharp screenplay, which weaves between the comic and the tragedy, stays anchored in the present while juggling with resurfaced traumatic memories.
A film whose Palme d’Or is more than well earned, and I hope will continue getting recognition.
Photo: Courtesy of Elevation Pictures
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