It Was Just an Accident tells the story of erstwhile political prisoners abducting a man they think was their interrogator and torturer. Panahi revealed in an interview with Variety that his own experiences at a prison in Iran inspired the film.
The Palme d’Or adds another prestigious award to Panahi’s already impressive collection, making him one of the rare directors to win the most coveted prizes at three of the biggest film festivals in Europe. He secured the Golden Lion at the 2000 Venice Film Festival for The Circle and the 2015 Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for Taxi, though he could not attend either festival for his travel ban.
Despite the international acclaim, Iranian media has largely remained silent on Panahi’s momentous Cannes victory. While IRNA, the state news outlet, acknowledged the award with a photograph of Panahi alongside a headline that reads “The world’s largest film festival made history for Iranian cinema,” news of the Palme d’Or win was conspicuously absent from the websites of the nation’s leading English-language news outlets.
