It Was Just an Accident

This screening took place on Thursday, February 12, 2026 at 8:30 pmYukon Arts Centre

A complex, thought-provoking film exploring themes of revenge, trauma, and moral ambiguity.

An unassuming mechanic is reminded of his time in an Iranian prison when he encounters a man he suspects to be his sadistic jailhouse captor. Panicked, he rounds up a few of his fellow ex-prisoners to confirm the man's identity.

 

In Persian with English Subtitles

Recommended 13+ for thematic elements, violence, strong language and smoking

"Undoubtedly one of the year’s best, It Was Just An Accident is yet another moving, prickly and hopeful morality tale from Panahi about people (and a society) trying to find a way forward while processing the trauma of the past." Radheyan Simonpillai, CBC

"An endlessly fascinating and extraordinarily powerful work." Bilge Eberi, New York magazine

"Searing… a tragicomedy but doesn’t fit into a tidy categorical box. It’s a fiction that its writer-director Jafar Panahi has drawn straight from life, his own included, and which unpredictably mixes tones and story types. It’s a drama about retribution, a comedy about collective action (and action in general), a low-mileage road movie and a slow-boiling ethical thriller. It’s a cry from the heart, a comic howl in the dark and one of the year’s essential movies." Manohla Dargis, New York Times