THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

I’ve got just a few days between NTFCA awards finalists being announced and my voting deadline, so I’m going to try to squeeze in a few more awards contenders before I have to send in my ballot. Being nominated multiple times and probably gunning for a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars, It Was Just an Accident was first on my list, and I think this was one that I’ll appreciate more as I sit with it.

The thriller at the center of It Was Just an Accident was gripping from start to finish, especially thanks to Panahi’s patient dissemination of information to the viewer. For the first half hour or so, I was just as confused as Eghbal was, and that only added to the intrigue. The pieces began to come together, and the story funneled to one question: what in the world are they going to do with this guy, if he’s even the right guy?

The cast of characters weighing these decisions were satisfyingly varied, both in their personalities and their individual experiences with this person and the system that led them to this moment. I especially enjoyed Hamid, who gave the best and most impassioned performance, but the whole crew was very entertaining. There was also an unexpected sense of humor in this film amidst all the tension that I don’t think I allowed myself to acknowledge or enjoy, and maybe on second viewing I could unclench a little and laugh.

While the back-and-forth and decision-making sometimes stalled the film’s momentum and slowed its already short runtime, the finale was a standout, flipping my opinion of the movie pretty quickly. From the more than 10-minute interrogation oner bursting with rawness and emotion to the last shot (sound design for the win!), the film’s finale was emotionally complex and powerful while also ending the way you could see it ending from a mile away. But to end the film with the sound of inevitability instead of the visual? That’s awesome!

I don’t think I fully connected with It Was Just an Accident on first watch, but I can totally acknowledge its craft and ability to build and release tension, as well as the difficult filmmaking process that Jafar Panahi endured. Stories like these—ones that expose corrupt systems that can’t even stand stories like these getting out—need to be told and shared, so props to Panahi, France, and Neon for getting this one out there. Like Seed of a Sacred Fig last year, It Was Just an Accident was a potent and gripping foreign film that took a hell of a lot of effort to make, and may take more than one viewing to fully appreciate. It’s one I can tell that I’m not gobsmacked by to its fullest…yet.