Jafar Panahi, the Iranian director long silenced by his government, made a triumphant return to the Cannes Film Festival this May with his thriller It Was Just An Accident, marking his first in-person appearance at the event in 22 years. Convicted in 2010 of “propaganda against the system,” Panahi endured multiple imprisonments, a hunger strike in 2022, and a 20-year ban on filmmaking and travel before his release in 2023, a period during which he covertly continued creating works like This Is Not a Film and No Bears.
His latest effort, shot clandestinely in Iran and edited in France, probes state violence through the story of a man who kidnaps a figure resembling his former torturer, blending black comedy and moral urgency in a narrative born from Panahi’s own prison encounters.
Upon the film’s world premiere on May 20, he acknowledged that “nothing in Iran is predictable” and expressed gratitude for regaining the right to travel, even as he plans to return immediately to Tehran to begin his next project. Industry observers note that Panahi’s persistence has elevated him as a symbol of artistic resistance, with critics praising his use of satire to dissect corruption and repression; a Spanish commentator highlighted the film’s capacity to wield dark humor as a tool of political denunciation.
Screen Daily lauded It Was Just An Accident as “a brave picture that confronts injustice head-on,” crediting Panahi’s ensemble—featuring Vahid Mobasseri and Mariam Afshari—with delivering authentic portraits of trauma under tyranny.
Thierry Frémaux, Cannes’s general delegate, described the film as a “tightly guarded mystery,” underscoring the director’s ability to transform censorship into creative opportunity. Despite threats of renewed sanctions, Panahi’s steadfast commitment to cinema reaffirms his status as a leading voice in the Iranian New Wave and as a global figure for freedom of expression.
