Our series “Read the Screenplay” highlights the scripts of the most compelling films of the awards season. Today, we feature Jafar Panahi’s film It Was Just an Accident, a gripping mix of moral intrigue and road-trip vendetta that clinched the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. This film, representing France, has also been shortlisted for the Best International Feature at the Oscars, blending intense suspense with surprising moments of humor.
Jafar Panahi stands out as the sole director to have won the highest accolades at the three major film festivals—Cannes, Berlin (Golden Bear), and Venice (Golden Lion). It Was Just an Accident, produced and finished in France in collaboration with Les Films Pelléas, signifies his celebrated return to traditional narrative filmmaking and is his first work in many years without his own on-screen presence. The film features Vahid Mobasseri in the lead role, and Ebrahim Azizi portrays Eghbal, the only professional actor in the cast.
Since its release in theaters in September, the movie has achieved notable success on the awards circuit. It garnered three trophies at the Gotham Awards including Best International Feature, Best Director, and Best Screenplay, and received four Golden Globe nominations in the categories of Best Film – Drama, Best International Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. Additionally, it won Best Screenplay from the Los Angeles Film Critics, and was honored with a Special Award from AFI.
The plot unfolds with Vahid, a modest mechanic and former political prisoner from Iran, who unexpectedly meets Eghbal, whom he suspects was his brutal prison overseer. In a state of alarm, Vahid unites a group of former prisoners, all victims of the same oppressor, to verify Eghbal’s identity. Their journey accelerates in an old van as they drive through Tehran with Eghbal, now unconscious and in their custody, compelling them to decide the extent to which they should seek vengeance on their presumed abuser.
The core of the film hinges on a moral quandary. The characters all believe Eghbal to be “Peg Leg,” the captor who tortured them blindfolded, yet none have seen his face until now, cleverly placing the audience in a similar state of ethical uncertainty and simmering anger. The tension escalates when the former prisoners meet Eghbal’s defenseless family, particularly his pregnant wife and young daughter, setting off a chain of events that create unforeseen bonds and elevate Panahi’s capacity for empathy.
Reflecting on his own experiences as a prisoner in Iran (he was last jailed in 2023, and was recently sentenced in absentia to a year in prison and a two-year travel ban while he was in the U.S.), Panahi crafts a film that is both a sharp critique of authoritarian cruelty and a profound exploration of human resilience against oppression. The narrative was inspired by Panahi’s desire to honor the numerous Iranian political prisoners he met while incarcerated for merely expressing his thoughts. He asserts, “I don’t make political films, I make human films,” highlighting the profound humanity that permeates his work following his own severe imprisonment.
The film poses vital questions about human nature and society: How do societies recover from devastating periods of tyranny and state-sponsored violence? What does genuine justice entail, and how can destructive cycles of retaliation be stopped? The former detainees, despite potentially losing their own futures, have not given up hope to assist a mother and child in distress. Panahi explained the film was crafted “about right now but for the future,” aiming it at the current generation’s children with an emphasis on what lies ahead—be it reconciliation, forgiveness, or dialogue. The film’s breath-taking final scene distinguishes forgiving from forgetting, prompting viewers to reflect on the transformations needed for the future.
Explore the screenplay below.
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