{"id":241696,"date":"2025-12-19T21:43:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T21:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/241696\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T21:43:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T21:43:08","slug":"it-was-just-an-accident-script-read-jafar-panahi-screenplay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/241696\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It Was Just An Accident’ Script: Read Jafar Panahi Screenplay"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDeadline\u2019s Read the\u00a0Screenplay\u00a0series spotlighting the scripts behind the awards season\u2019s most talked-about movies, continues with Jafar Panahi<\/a>\u2019s Neon<\/a> film It\u00a0Was\u00a0Just\u00a0an\u00a0Accident, a deeply felt moral thriller\u00a0and a road-trip revenge story that won the Palme d\u2019Or at the Cannes Film Festival<\/a>. The film, which made the Oscar shortlist<\/a> repping France for Best International Feature<\/a>, combines high-stakes tension with unexpected flurries of humor.<\/p>\n

\n\tPanahi is the only director to have won the top prize at the trifecta of top film festivals \u2014 Cannes, Berlin (Golden Bear)\u00a0and Venice (Golden Lion). Produced\u00a0and completed in France in co-production with Les Films Pell\u00e9as,\u00a0It\u00a0Was\u00a0Just\u00a0an\u00a0Accident\u00a0marks his triumphant return to pure narrative fiction\u00a0and his first film in years in which he himself does not appear. The cast is led by Vahid Mobasseri, with Ebrahim Azizi as Eghbal, the sole professional actor in the film.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe pic has had a strong showing on the awards circuit since hitting theaters in September, scoring three wins at the Gotham Awards<\/a> for Best International Feature, Best Director and Best Screenplay, and four Golden Globes noms<\/a> for Best Film \u2013 Drama, International Film, Director and Screenplay. The script also picked up a Best Screenplay win from the Los Angeles Film Critics<\/a>, and the film was recognized with a Special Award from AFI<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe narrative begins when Vahid,\u00a0an\u00a0unassuming mechanic\u00a0and former Iranian political prisoner, has a chance encounter with Eghbal, a man he strongly suspects to be his sadistic jailhouse captor. Panicked, Vahid gathers several former prisoners, all abused by the same captor, to try\u00a0and confirm Eghbal\u2019s identity. The story takes off in a rickety van as this diverse\u00a0and bickering group drives around Tehran with the captive, unconscious Eghbal, forcing them to confront how far they should take matters into their own hands with their presumed tormentor.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis setup is the foundation for the dilemma. The characters all suspect Eghbal is \u201cPeg Leg,\u201d the captor who blindfolded\u00a0and terrorized them, but none has ever seen his face until now, slyly putting the audience in the same position of moral doubt\u00a0and unresolved fury. The complications mount when the ex-prisoners encounter Eghbal\u2019s vulnerable family, specifically his pregnant wife\u00a0and young daughter, triggering a development that forges unexpected connections\u00a0and pushes Panahi\u2019s empathetic instincts to a peak.<\/p>\n

\n\tPanahi, who reflects on his past experiences as\u00a0an\u00a0Iranian prisoner (he was last in jail in 2023, and was actually sentenced<\/a> to one year in prison and a two-year travel ban in absentia earlier this month while he was in the U.S. on the awards circuit), creates a work that is at once incisively political yet deeply human. The film is\u00a0an\u00a0outcry against\u00a0an\u00a0authoritarian regime\u2019s inhumanity, but\u00a0it\u00a0goes further to become one of cinema\u2019s most distinctive depictions of tyranny\u2019s greatest countervailing force: the \u201csheer, beautiful humanness of those who defy\u00a0it.\u201d The story arose from Panahi\u2019s wish to honor the many Iranian political prisoners he befriended while being imprisoned simply for expressing himself. He has stated, \u201cI don\u2019t make political films, I make human films,\u201d\u00a0and indeed, his humanity is remarkably enriched in the wake of his own harsh\u00a0imprisonment.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film asks crucial questions about humanity\u00a0and society: How do societies truly move forward after soul-crushing periods of autocracy\u00a0and state violence? What does true\u00a0justice look like,\u00a0and how can vicious cycles of endless payback be averted? The former detainees, who may have lost a sense of their own futures, have not lost the hope that they can help a mother\u00a0and child in need. Panahi stated the film\u00a0was\u00a0made \u201cabout right now but for the future,\u201d intended for the children of this generation, with a focus on what comes next whether\u00a0it\u00a0be reconciliation, forgiveness or dialogue. The heart-stopping final moment underscores that forgiving is not the same as forgetting, leaving the audience to think about the changes necessary for the future.<\/p>\n

\n\tRead the screenplay<\/a> below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deadline\u2019s Read the\u00a0Screenplay\u00a0series spotlighting the scripts behind the awards season\u2019s most talked-about movies, continues with Jafar Panahi\u2019s Neon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[11519,18,117,19,17,127206,118284,327,7674,122944],"class_list":{"0":"post-241696","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-cannes-film-festival","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-it-was-just-an-accident","14":"tag-jafar-panahi","15":"tag-movies","16":"tag-neon","17":"tag-read-the-screenplay"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115748418565261497","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}