“Do not let your memories weigh more than your hopes” (Persian Proverb)

There are no ornaments or artifices; when the first images gradually appear on the screen, we can feel life without filters. A Simple Accident (2025) by Jafar Panahi is a drama built on a minimalist staging, supported by a story that is both robust and emotionally profound. In Panahi’s world, the narrative is the treasured jewel, and his actors become its jealous guardians, defending it as if with their very lives.

As if it were the butterfly effect, a single event unleashes a chain of consequences, and Panahi’s script throws us straight into the lives of the protagonists of A Simple Accident. A desolate road, the darkness of night, a family, and an unfortunate stray dog that crosses their path. These elements set the stage for the two central characters of the story. When Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi) is forced to ask for help to fix his car, his presence shakes Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri), stirring echoes of the past.

Once the wheel starts turning, there is no way back. Panahi captures us in a drama that flows with intensity, making us laugh, suffer, and confront moral dilemmas that linger long after the final credits have rolled. The trauma of the collective and the torturer-antagonist serve as a vehicle of expiation for the director, who has already served prison sentences more than once in his native Iran for protesting against the government.

An eye for an eye?

In A Simple Accident, the question that resounds with the greatest force carries an existential weight and emerges as a double interrogation: An eye for an eye? Forgive the aggressor? From there, the director structures his discourse and locks us into a drama that flirts with humor even in its darkest moments. The absurd feels almost unbelievable, yet it never strays from reality. The blindness brought on by the thirst for vengeance finds light in the reason that screams from the depths of those broken souls. Vahid and his group embody an oppressed nation, while Eghbal symbolizes a despotic state that, even in its absence, disturbs the lives of all.

It’s impressive that this clandestinely shot film has such a striking visual power. The camera is always positioned in the right place, and Panahi’s mastery transforms the ordinary into symbolic elements that transcend to become acts of resistance. The final sequence is brilliant, and the suspense it generates with just a single shot is overwhelming. It was not just an accident that it took home the top honor at Cannes.