2025 Palme d’Or Winner – Cannes Film Festival

At a pivotal moment in Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s “It Was Just an Accident,” our main characters are debating whether to kill the man who tortured them in prison – or, at least, they’re pretty sure he’s the man who tortured them in prison. Hamid (Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr), a staunch member of the “kill him” camp, walks over to Shiva (Mariam Afshari), who’s sitting up against a tree with no leaves. The tree reminds Hamid of a play the two of them saw once, “Waiting for Godot.” They too now find themselves waiting for the same thing as the characters in the play – for hope, for salvation, for some clue of what they should do. But the thing about Godot is he never shows up. Hope, an answer, whatever it is – it never finds those waiting on it. That tension sits at the core of Panahi’s rage-fueled, somehow comedic thriller about the fruitlessness of revenge. Made in secret by a filmmaker who understands the evils of authoritarianism better than most, “It Was Just an Accident” offers a sharp rebuke to that authoritarianism, wrestling with complex questions about justice and humanity.-Rough Draft Atlanta