It Was Just an Accident (2025)

A squeak is the only evidence in It Was Just an Accident, and Jafar Panahi builds a whole moral crisis on it. The first stretch is slow and stubbornly ordinary, and some of the group’s arguments go in circles. Stay with it. A man with a prosthetic leg hits a dog on a dark road and pulls into a garage, where a mechanic named Vahid hears that leg and goes cold. He’s convinced it’s the interrogator who abused him in prison. But Vahid was blindfolded back then. So were the others. He takes the stranger along and seeks out other former prisoners, including Shiva, a photographer midway through shooting Goli and Ali’s wedding. None of them can be certain, and the man keeps swearing he’s someone else. Panahi lets the doubt tighten scene by scene, and the ending is devastating. Critics gave it 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. A 9.0 because it turns a thriller setup into a question you can’t put down. $3,644 says you’re still quietly debating what you would have done long after you get home.

What works: Panahi builds unbearable tension out of uncertainty, and the slow-burning story ends on a devastating final scene.

What doesn’t: The opening stretch is very slow, and some of the group’s arguments go in circles before the story finds its footing again.

Who it’s for: Viewers who want a thriller that leaves them with a hard moral question instead of easy answers.