The Galas at the BFI London Film Festival are always the most coveted events of the season, glowing with stars and new films. This year was no different. Alongside the high-profile titles such as Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, Frankenstein and After the Hunt, one smaller and quieter film held the same power to captivate. It Was Just an Accident, the new work from Iranian director Jafar Panahi, arrived at the festival after winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes earlier this year. With this win, Panahi joins a rare group of filmmakers, including Henri-Georges Clouzot, Michelangelo Antonioni and Robert Altman, who have each taken the top honours at all three major film festivals: Berlinale, Cannes and Venice.


The film begins in silence and darkness. Eghbal, played by Ebrahim Azizi, drives along a lonely road with his pregnant wife and young daughter. The quiet of the night is broken when the car hits something unseen. The family continues, shaken, until the car breaks down and they stop at a small garage. The mechanic, Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri), is known as “Jughead” for his habit of holding his painful side. As he examines the car, a look of recognition crosses his face. He believes he knows this man from his painful past. From this moment, the story turns. As the time flies, others become involved, most notably: bookseller Salar, wedding photographer Shiva (Mariam Afshari), the couple whose wedding she is documenting, bride Goli (Hadis Pakbaten) and groom Ali (Majid Panahi), and local troublemaker Hamid (Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr). Brought together by coincidence, the group finds themselves confronting the traces of a shared past they cannot easily name. The story unfolds over a single day, through dim garages, hospital corridors, parking lots and empty roads. The camera watches as words are spoken and withdrawn, as faces search for truth in half-light. The world outside acts normal while this small group circles a question that none of them can name.

Told with quiet, black humour that recalls Waiting for Godot, the film unfolds like an old fable that speaks softly yet sharply about justice, revenge and forgiveness. It asks a question as ancient as storytelling itself: what would you do if you were suddenly face to face with the person who once caused you unbearable pain? The situation seems simple, yet no answer feels right. Each character stands between anger and hesitation, torn by the pull of memory and the wish to act. The film does not seek heroes or villains; it observes how easily cruelty spreads, how it can move from one hand to another, from one life to the next. It suggests that violence is never just an individual act but something carried by the system that permits it, a current that passes through those who once suffered and those who now strike back. Within this uneasy circle, some characters wish to punish, others to forgive, and some cannot decide which would hurt more. What remains is the silent question of what revenge might do to those who demand it, and whether forgiveness is ever a kind of surrender or a way to begin again.

Read my full review here: https://www.indiependent.co.uk/bfi-london-film-festival-2025-it-was-just-an-accident-review/