The scars of authoritarianism run deep, rarely heal, and are shared by many. In It Was Just an Accident, they’re ripped open by an unexpected encounter that has grave consequences for a disparate collection of men and women.

Directed by acclaimed Iranian auteur Janar Panahi (This is Not a Film, No Bears), and winner of the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, this intensely taut tale, which screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 9, is both a nail-biting thriller and a messy moral drama, rife with tensions between justice and vengeance, healing and suffering, and reality and fantasy.

Diving headfirst into a thicket of thorny, timely issues, it will undoubtedly provoke heated conversations in the aftermath of its unforgettable final scene.

Since 2010,

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