It Was Just an Accident (2025) review

Mechanic Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) works on a vehicle owned by a man with a prosthetic leg (Ebrahim Azizi) that he's convinced was one of his torturers when he was sent to prison for "propaganda" against the government, so he drags him to the desert and plans on burying him, but is then baffled as to whether or not he has the right person, so he asks his friend Salar (Georges Hashemzadeh) for help, Salar refers him to photographer Shiva (Mariam Afshari) and before he knows it, soon-to-be-married couple of Goli (Hadis Pakbaten) and Ali (Majid Panahi) as well as loose cannon Hamid (Mohammad Ali Elyasmehr) are with him and trying to figure out the one-legged man's true identity.  Filmmaker Panahi's troubles with the Iranian authorities are well-documented by now, and he created this feature without "permission" (which much have been harrowing) and what emerges here is a nice little morality tale about revenge: Vahid and his ragtag band want so desperately to "get even" and eliminate their captor ... except they also want to make sure they're not killing someone who is innocent.  There's an argument being made regarding "restorative justice" - confronting the individual(s) who did you harm - although that last shot (which could be real or a hallucination) is unsettling.