Hit the Road

Seatbelt… Mirrors… Handbrake… Clutch… Father, leg in plaster on the back seat, growls driving instructions. His hyperenergetic young son dances and jumps around the car. They bicker about the ill dog in the trunk, but from the passenger seat mother mainly tries to keep things light. The eldest son drives this unruly group – to which he doesn’t seem to entirely belong – in silence, through broad Iranian landscapes.

The aim of this chaotic family trip seeps through the cracks of this tender and slightly absurd fiction debut, in which Panah Panahi – son of influential director Jafar Panahi – noticeably establishes his own artistic voice. The dialogues cover love and friendship, as well as the relative merits of Batman, Lance Armstrong, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Using visual humour and a prominent soundtrack, that combines Bach with nostalgic Iranian pop songs, the film paints a sensitive portrait of a family desperately trying to postpone the pain of an impending farewell.