#jafar-panahi

#jafar-panahi

Winner of the top prize (Palme d'Or) at this year's 2025 Cannes Film Festival, Panahi's It Was Just an Accidentis a gripping thriller that follows a devoted son and mechanic named Vahid (devastatingly performed by Vahid Mobasseri) who suddenly believes that he may or may not have randomly reencountered the government intelligence officer who had brutally tortured him years prior. What ensues is an unstoppable (and borderline overwhelming) spiral that sends Vahid to consult numerous other victims, exploring the dangers of "unresolved devastation and the dangerous thirst for relentless revenge."

When the Iranian director Jafar Panahi showed up at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, it struck some of us as something close to a miracle. For most of the past 15 years, since he was arrested in 2010 and charged with making anti-government propaganda, Panahi had been forbidden to travel outside Iran. He'd also been banned from making movies, though he got around that restriction with great ingenuity and continued to shoot films in secret.

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