"It Was Just an Accident" — Read, Study, & Download The Screenplay by Jafar Panahi
Revenge Is Easy. Living With It Isn’t.
The "It Was Just an Accident" screenplay, written and directed by Jafar Panahi, is a razor-edged Iranian dark comedy that explores what happens when justice becomes personal, and personal trauma becomes contagious. When a group of ordinary people believe they’ve encountered the man who once tortured them, they must decide what “accountability” really means, and who gets to define it.
This is not a revenge story. It’s a story about what revenge turns people into.
With deadpan humor and moral precision, the screenplay exposes how quickly righteous certainty curdles into cruelty, how groupthink becomes momentum, and how violence disguises itself as closure.
"It Was Just an Accident" — Educator Resources & Study Guide
Writing Comedy That Tightens the Noose.
"It Was Just an Accident" is a lesson in moral pressure-cooker storytelling. The screenplay uses humor not to relieve tension, but to sharpen it -- forcing the audience into complicity with its characters’ worst instincts.
For screenwriters, this script offers powerful lessons in ethical storytelling, escalation without action, ensemble dynamics, and how dark comedy can expose the psychology of power rather than soften it.
→ Download the full Educator Breakdown (PDF) for tone analysis, screenwriting takeaways, a Critical Lens module, and a writing exercise. For the complete "It Was Just an Accident" screenplay, continue scrolling until you see the button.
It Was Just an Accident (2025) — Classroom Study
The "It Was Just an Accident" screenplay is a study in moral corrosion. It examines how trauma warps judgment, how group dynamics accelerate cruelty, and how the desire for justice mutates into performance. Rather than presenting revenge as catharsis, the screenplay treats it as contamination. Each character enters the story with a reason. No one leaves with innocence. For screenwriters, it demonstrates how to create tension without spectacle, how to turn conversation into combat, and how comedy can be used as a moral solvent.
- When does justice become cruelty?
- Is revenge ever ethical?
- How humor changes moral perception
- Groupthink as narrative engine
- Trauma and moral certainty
- Writing tension without violence
- The psychology of “deservedness”
- Who gets to define accountability?
"It Was Just an Accident" One Sheet & Script Intel
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. NEON
| Type | ... |
FYC
|
| Version | ... | FinalEnglish |
| Date | ... | 12.15.2025 |
| Pages | ... | 63 |
| Genres | ... | Crime Drama Mystery |
| Screenplay | ... | Jafar Panahi |
| IMDb ID | ... | 36491653 |
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