It Was Just an Accident

It Was Just an Accident (Persian: یک تصادف ساده) is a 2025 thriller film about a group of former Iranian political prisoners who face the question of whether to exact revenge on a man they believe may be their tormentor. The film had its world premiere at the main competition of the 78th Cannes Film Festival on 20 May 2025, where it won the Palme d'Or. At the 83rd Golden Globe Awards, it became the first Iranian film to be nominated for Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director and Best Screenplay, and was also nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. At the 98th Academy Awards, it was nominated for Best International Feature Film (France) and Best Original Screenplay. Written and produced by Jafar Panahi. It was an accident! What is destined to happen happens! If God placed it on our path, there has to be a reason. taglines Eghbal's wife It wasn't his fault.. It was an accident! What is destined to happen happens! If God placed it on our path, there has to be a reason. Vahid Two or three weeks after your arrest, I too was arrested. On the same charges as everyone else : collusion, conspiracy and propaganda against the regime. There's an ATM over there. But two hundred tomans is the most you can withdraw. Hamid They hanged me by my feet! I didn't see the sun for three months. I could no longer tell day from night. And now you feel sorry for them? People like you think they're the Gandhis and Mandelas, and they see us as the Hitlers and Mussolinis. You don't get it. If this guy survives, he won't spare us. Don't you realize that?! Golrokh I was blindfolded when they took me out of the cell. They took me to the gallows. I heard a woman ask, "Do I let her fall?" Then I heard a broken voice answer her, "Yes, let her fall. But she's young, make sure her neck breaks right away so she doesn't suffer too much"... I waited for hours for them to lower the lever and put me out of my misery... until I heard that voice again, Take her down, she needs to be married first before we cast her into hell.. They thought an executed virgin would go straight to heaven and they didn't want to do me that honor. Eghbal's daughter Daddy, where are you. Mommy won't wake up. Please, hurry. Mommy's dying. Daddy, hurry. Daddy. Daddy, why aren't you saying anything? Mommy's dying. Daddy. Please, say something. Shiva Fine, I'll help you reach that goal. I'll make you a martyr right now. Dialogue Eghbal : Sir, what are you doing? Please, wait a minute. I'm dying. What did I do? I have a wife and children. My wife is pregnant. No, stop, stop. Is it because of that dog yesterday evening? I swear I felt bad about it all night. We didn't sleep. I made a mistake. I'm sorry. But you don't kill someone for running over a dog! Believe me, it's not my fault. The dog ran out in front of the car all of a sudden. I couldn't see clearly enough. Okay? I admit it. But I didn't kill anyone! I beg you, let me go. I'm sick. I have a child waiting for me at home! Vahid : You thought blindfolding us was enough to make your invisible? You didn't think we'd recognize you from the sound your leg makes? Our eyes were closed, but we haven't forgotten. We knew that one day, thanks to that sound, we'd find you. The sound that haunted my nights and my days for five years. Shiva : Beautiful, isn't it? Security Guard : You can't see the city. All you can see is dust! Shiva : Yes, but I can put whatever I want in the background with the computer. Security Guard : Such as? Shiva : Such as Tehran without dust... or the mountains.. plains... forest... Anything the happy couple wants! Security Guard : So you lie to people? Hamid : When they were dragging me from one cell to another, your daddy was receiving foreign currency and selling it on the black market to secure a prosperous future for his little boy! But you'll see, one day all those people will have to explain themselves! Shiva : You can pray for that day to come! But, believe me, your justice isn't the right one either. Hamid : Don't talk to me about justice, you'll make me puke! You dumped me when I had nothing left. What became of all your fine promises.. 'Together forever...' Shiva : I didn't leave you because you had no money left. You never had money anyway. I left you because you couldn't rid yourself of your rancor and hate. I left you because you could no longer tell the difference between friends and enemies, and you still can't.. Hamid : Stop. You want me to tell you all what your problem is? You're scared. Scared of consequences. Scared they'll come back to haunt you! So let me deal with it. It'll be for the best. Even for you, you'll get your revenge! And you'll avoid any violence. Shiva : It's not violence I have a problem with, but crime. Hamid : How come you still don't understand? I'm telling you. This is war. It's kill or be killed. Ali, Mister Silent Majority, try to understand. Come on, let's throw him in his grave! Ali : Look, you've said what you had to say. Out of respect for Golrokh, I haven't said anything. But this silent majority you talk about, it remembers history well. The religious leaders arrived brandishing the slogan of paradise, now they start their morning prayer with executions. And you tell us we have to kill and bury him? Hamid : Listen to me, I'm not promoting violence here. I'm preventing barbarity. The only language they understand is that of the strongest. But you're acting as if you still hoped you could change them.. Shiva : Who said they were going to change? If they could, they would have already. I'm saying there has to be a fair trial, that's all. Hamid : What fair trial?! Where? When? Now that the courts are in their hands, they pass death sentences in the courtrooms every minute. Do you think they'll ever judge their own one day? You must be dreaming! A fair trial, that will come once we're victorious, not for now. Shiva : If you carry on acting like this, you'll only make things worse. Shiva : You really want to kill him? You're obsessed by revenge. That's the problem. Eghbal 'killed' you so you then try to kill him! Hamid : Yes, he 'killed' me. He and people like him killed off the five best years of my life. And those of hundreds of others too. How many years in all? In fact, killing this man just once is too little. The others like him should be punished too and if there are any left afterwards, they'll know what's what. Shiva : I have no problem with punishment, but at the right time. Hamid, killing won't solve anything! The problem isn't these people themselves. The problem is the system that gives them unlimited power. In a system like that, if you kill him, don't you think they'll simply put another man in his place? No, Hamid, even if they put an angle of justice in his place, it would still be the same problem! Hamid : The same old speeches all over again. What system are you talking about? They created that system, you know. Shiva : Those people would behave diffferently in another system. The problem isn't people. It's the system. You confuse the system with a few submissive people. Hamid : Submissive? Remember, this guy wanted to marry Golrokh off before hanging her. Why turn a blind eye to that? The guy believed body and soul in the hell where he wanted to send Golrokh. Shiva : You really want to kill him? That's exactly what he wants. Someone to put an end to his cursed life. So that the next regime will be based on murder. The same endless cycle. Hospital Receptionist : So, where's your father? Niloufar : He's at work. He couldn't come. He sent my uncle. Hospital Receptionist : That's not right, sweetie. Your father has to sign the consent form. Niloufar' : Can my uncle sign? Hospital Receptionist : No, sweetie. Call your father and tell him to come here. Vahid : Madam, excuse me. This woman is dying. Are you waiting for her husband to come here to collect her corpse? Hospital Receptionist : Sir, it's the law! If anything goes wrong during the operation, who will take responsibility? Vahid : I will! Just let me sign.. Hospital Receptionist : You don't even have any ID with you! Vahid : What if I'd found this woman on the street and brought her here.. Would you have waited for her to die before admitting her? Doctor : Mrs. Soltani, admit her right now. They can bring us the ID papers later. Vahid : Do you remember how you'd hit me and then swear on Seyed al-Shuhada how sorry you were? Look what you did to me. We simply asked for what was owed to us, our pay for our work. We told you we didn't even have bread. I used to slave away from dawn to dusk in the heat of the date factory, struggling to bring home a bit of bread, and you turned me into a guy who really wants to kill someone.I've been dead since you put the noose around my neck and knocked the chair over. When I pissed my pants and fell to the floor, you split your sides laughing. Remember when you opened the cell door laughing and told me my fiancée was dead and that I'd need to find another? I died right then on hearing she killed herself because of you. Now it's time to make your last requests. Eghbal : Let me reassure you. You're not a killer. If you were, you'd never have taken my wife and daughter to the hospital. Now, I know you're not sure if I'm Eghbal or not, because you've fallen prey to guilt. You want to hear it from my mouth, so listen carefully. I'm not saying this because I'm scared of dying. But because you helped my wife. I'm saying it to pay my debt to you, so I owe you nothing enymore. I'm Eghbal. The real Eghbal. Eghbal : Everything I did was a religious obligation. I did it all to preserve religion and the system. I'll sacrifice everything I have to preserve the system, just as I sacrificed my leg in Syria for the goals of the regime. Because the imam said that preserving the regime is a greater obligation than the life of the Supreme Guide. Now, you want the children you smack to write the al-Baqarah surah for you? For a few coins of your pittance that was delayed a few days, they should ruin everything and offer the country to the enemy to endanger the security of the regime? I don't know who you are, or what you're saying. But I have nothing to do with the law or the government. For me, the Master and the regime are all that matter. If you claim I did those things, then they were necessary. There's no red line when it comes to preserving the regime. If it was your right, fine, if not God Himself will reward you. Vahid : What a surprise. You talk just like ISIS. They kill innocents too and say that if they were guilty, fine, if not, they'll be martyrs in heaven. Eghbal : Think what you like. Do whatever you want. If I return home alive and you haven't hurt my wife and children as you claim you helped them, I'll forgive you. I'll forget about today. And if I die, I'll reach my goal of becoming a martyr. That's all. I won't say another word. Shiva : Yes, you're for Islam and the regime. Unbound wealth is leaving this country and its our fault again. You think the country belongs to you? Remember when you looked at my private photos and you asked me how many dollars I'd been paid to remove my vail? Remember when you took money out of my pocket saying, "Here's the money. Take your clothes off too"? And you want to die a martyr? Eghbal : I'm sorry. I'm sorry. By Syed al-Shuhada. I'm sorry. Who do you think I am. I'm like you. I was just trying to make a living too. They imposed that task on me like a religious duty. At first, I really suffered when I hurt you. But, little by little, it became normal for me. Now after what I've done, I don't even recognize who I am anymore. I lost my soul in that room and the things that I did still haunt me. They appear before my eyes all the time. For the love of God, leave me alone. Don't remind me of anything. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Cast Vahid Mobasseri - Vahid Mariam Afshari - Shiva Ebrahim Azizi - Eghbal Hadis Pakbaten - Goli/Golrokh Majid Panahi - Ali Mohammad Ali Elyasmehr - Hamid Delnaz Najafi - Eghbal's daughter Afssaneh Najmabadi - Eghbal's wife Georges Hashemzadeh - Salar External links Category:2025 films Category:Films set in Iran Category:Thriller films Category:Iranian films Category:French films Category:Films about revenge Category:Films about abduction Category:Road films Category:Films about torture