It Was Just an Accident Review: Jafar Panahi's Prison Years Become a Moral Thriller
★★★★★ 5/5
A masterpiece of political cinema that argues through suspense.
Is It Was Just an Accident good?
Yes — a 91 Metascore and 98% Critic Score put it among the year’s most acclaimed international releases, with a strong 88% Audience Score confirming it plays as gripping cinema, not just prestige cinema. Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or winner turns a minor traffic collision into a moral thriller about a man who may have encountered his former state torturer.
What is It Was Just an Accident about?
A chance encounter forces a man who suffered state violence to confront someone who may have inflicted it. Made under conditions of censorship and smuggled to Cannes, the film channels Panahi’s own history of imprisonment and house arrest into tense, tightly controlled drama rather than didactic statement.
Should you watch It Was Just an Accident?
Yes — the rare alignment of critic and audience scores this high means it delivers on both craft and accessibility. It rewards attention: the film builds dread through conversation and refuses to demonize or absolve any character too quickly.
How does It Was Just an Accident compare to A Separation?
Like Asghar Farhadi’s film, it uses a small, specific incident to expose much larger moral and political fault lines. Panahi’s version is starker and more directly personal, given his own history with the systems the film interrogates.