HIT THE ROAD

A family in a car, travelling through Iran: the father (Hassan Madjooni), his leg in a cast and correspondingly irritable, the mother (Pantea Panahiha), who does the talking and the worrying, a small boy (Rayan Sarlak) who cannot sit still and keeps turning the music up, and the elder son Farid (Amin Simiar) at the wheel, who barely says a word. Plus a sick dog. Where they are going and why is left unsaid for a long time. Only gradually does it emerge that the journey is heading towards the border, and that Farid is to leave the country. “Hit the Road” by Panah Panahi, Iran 2021, is a road movie in which the farewell is the real journey.

Panahi’s feature debut shifts with great lightness between comedy and grief, between family bickering and quiet wide shots of the landscape, leaving the audience to do the work of understanding what goes unsaid. It premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes in 2021; at the BFI London Film Festival, the film won the award for Best Film. “Hit the Road” was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2021.

Shown at the 2021 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2021 · Film Archive