Jafar Panahi’s film, awarded at the latest Cannes Film Festival, will hit theaters on October 1, 2025. The trailer promises a narrative that is both intimate and political.
The 2025 Cannes Film Festival marked a rare moment: the return of Jafar Panahi to the Croisette. The Iranian filmmaker, long barred from traveling due to a prison sentence for propaganda in his home country, was finally able to personally receive the Palme d’Or for A Simple Accident. Three months later, the film unveils itself to the public through a trailer that sets its tone.
The video opens with a van stopped in the desert. In the back, a man tries to pull a body out of the trunk. The viewer meets Vahid, who is convinced he has found his former tormentor. “Do you remember what you did to me, scumbag?”, he exclaims, trying to bury alive the man he believes he recognizes. The man, named Eghbal, firmly denies it. A family man, he claims never to have met Vahid. From this point, doubt settles in: what if it’s not him?
The film explores this shift between certainty and uncertainty. Vahid struggles with his memories, his anger, and the need for justice. The narrative also draws in other characters in this quest: a young woman photographing the scenes, a groom-to-be, and a colossus driven by rage. All orbit around the same man, whose identity remains in flux.
The starting point seems banal. A dog is run over by a car in the outskirts of Tehran. The vehicle breaks down, and the family traveling in it seeks help. This detour leads Vahid to encounter the man he suspects is “La guibole,” a former prison guard. He hasn’t seen him for years, but thinks he recognizes his gait. From that moment, everything changes. The seemingly inconsequential accident becomes the catalyst of a spiral of suspicion and violence.
Shot clandestinely, the film unfolds between dusty roads, narrow alleys, and forced stops. Each scene raises a moral question: how far to go to achieve reparation? How to distinguish revenge from justice?
A Filmmaker Still Under Surveillance
The Palme d’Or awarded to A Simple Accident also has a political significance. Jafar Panahi has already paid dearly for his opposition to the Iranian regime. In 2022, he was sentenced for “propaganda” and incarcerated. He regained his freedom only after a hunger strike. Exiled in Australia since 2025, he continues to express his desire to one day return to Iran, even at the risk of being imprisoned again.
His cinema has often taken the form of a closed setting. Taxi Tehran showed him sitting behind a wheel, filming his passengers in the capital. With A Simple Accident, Vahid’s van becomes both a refuge and a trap. A confined space where memory, fear, and the desire for justice clash.
The director had no Iranian funding. The filming took place outside official channels, with actors well-acquainted with censorship. Vahid Mobasseri, already noted in No Bears, plays the main role. He is joined by Maryam Afshari and Ebrahim Azizi in the cast.
At Cannes, the jury presided over by Juliette Binoche praised the film as “of a particular intensity.” Actress Nadia Melliti received the award for best actress for another feature, The Little Last One. Robert De Niro and Denzel Washington received an honorary Palme. But the evening primarily highlighted Panahi, who was warmly applauded.
An Anticipated Release
The film will be released in theaters on October 1, 2025, across France. The first images released this week already provide a glimpse of its tone. The blend of comedy, drama, and politics is evident. The trailer depicts a country marked by tensions but also individuals who doubt, make mistakes, and confront their own limits.
“Even after feverishly tailing, then kidnapping, dragging him in his van, and almost burying him alive, Vahid continues to doubt.” This phrase, heard in excerpts, summarizes the confusion that pervades the film. At each stage, spectators are invited to ask: who is this man really, and how far can the quest for justice go?
With A Simple Accident, Panahi continues to shape a body of work molded by constraint. His films explore life under an authoritarian regime, but also human reactions in the face of fear and doubt. The French release will likely mark an important moment for viewers curious to discover a cinema that is both engaged and deeply rooted in the everyday.
