Hit the Road
A road movie by Panah Panahi (son of grandmaster Jafar) that is both hilarious and poignant, about a family that drives through vast Iranian landscapes with an unclear destination.
Cars play an important role in Iranian cinema. They fulfil the function of a ‘safe space’, a place where people are free and not controlled by the authoritarian Iranian regime. HIT THE ROAD follows a family – a taciturn adult son behind the wheel, mother in the passenger seat, father with one leg in plaster and an untameable six-year-old bouncing ball in the back seat – as they drive their car through a rugged landscape. The family bicker about Batman, Lance Armstrong and 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. The mother tries to keep the mood light, but it gradually becomes clear that this is not a jolly family outing.
Panah Panahi is the son of Jafar Panahi (TAXI TEHERAN, OFFSIDE, THE CIRCLE), the Iranian director who has been banned from working in his country. There are similarities between the work of father and son, but at the same time the deliciously impetuous HIT THE ROAD is clearly the work of a director with his own voice.