Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
Director
Jafar Panahi
Cast
Vahid Mobasseri,
Mariam Afshari,
Ebrahim Azizi,
Hadis Pakbaten,
Majid Panahi,
Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr,
George Hashem Zadeh,
Delmaz Najafi,
Afsaneh Najm Abadi,
Omid Reza
Genre
Drama,
Thriller,
Crime
An unassuming mechanic is reminded of his time in an Iranian prison when he encounters a man he suspects to be his sadistic jailhouse captor.
Observer by Oliver Jones
Panahi has crafted a moral quandary fit for Plato; yet unlike his past works—including 2022’s No Bears and 2018’s 3 Faces (both of which, like this film, were filmed without permission in Iran)—there’s nothing theoretical or metaphoric on display here.
New York Magazine (Vulture) by Bilge Ebiri
It Was Just an Accident plays like an ideal melding of the filmmaker Panahi was and the filmmaker he’s been forced to become. It’s an endlessly fascinating and extraordinarily powerful work.
The Travers Take by Peter Travers
In Jafar Panahi’s latest masterpiece, one of the very best movies of the year, five Iranian dissidents debate killing their former torturer.
Wall Street Journal by Zachary Barnes
The director has considered how good people are to respond to brutal injustice, and created in the wake of his own nightmare a movie of bracing anger and empathy. Mr. Panahi’s victimization by Iran’s government may well continue, but this is a film of emotional and political truths that can be crushed by no regime.
The Associated Press by Mark Kennedy
Watch it and it will linger in your mind. It’s a movie for Iranians, of course, but it’s valuable for any society hoping to one day mend a divided country.
The New York Times by Manohla Dargis
It’s a cry from the heart, a comic howl in the dark and one of the year’s essential movies.
RogerEbert.com by Robert Daniels
Through cinematographer Amin Jafari’s sense of environment, the script’s agile tonal changes, and the attentive cast, we are enthralled from minute one until the end of an intense thriller that operates quietly but with no less punch.
The Playlist by Rafaela Sales Ross
This is a film about anger, felt as deeply by the characters whose lives unspool in front of the camera as by the filmmaker who sits behind it. Such anger is a long river that bifurcates into two opposing forces: violence and empathy.
The Film Stage by Leonardo Goi
Panahi welds scorching social critique to a masterful command of form: a devastating cry for justice, his latest also serves as a superb thriller. It is a towering achievement.
Time Out by Phil de Semlyen
The director is clearly having a whale of a time taking the piss out of the corruption, cruelty and bribery rife in his country.
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