Hit the Road (Panahi, 2022)

Hit the Road is the debut of Panah Panahi, the son of Iranian cinema legend Jafar Panahi, the unjustly persecuted visionary behind Taxi, This Is Not A Film, Crimson Gold, and many more. For years, the elder Panahi’s work has been censored and silenced, with the director himself forbidden from leaving the country or making further films. The influence of his father’s work, and that of the elder Panahi’s mentor (and arguably the greatest of all Iranian filmmakers) Abbas Kiarostami, is sewn through this debut, which builds on the tropes of the national cinema those craftsmen helped to revitalise (rural communities, driving sequences, the use of non-actors) while presenting Panah Panahi as a cinematic voice to be reckoned with as well. 

Melancholic and mysterious, this wonderful Iranian tragicomedy follows in the footsteps of that nation’s cinematic masters, creating something that feels up-to-the-moment and yet timeless in the rich veins of feeling that it mines. It’s a quiet, revelatory must-see.

An SUV motors down a dusty highway. Inside, a family of four (five if you count the sickly stray dog they picked up along the way) are journeying deep into the Iranian countryside. The film is short on details – the reasons for where they’re headed remain vague, the destination only revealed halfway through the film. Even the names of the characters are withheld. And yet, much can be gleaned by the way the family interact, bicker, joke and sing on their lengthy jaunt. The mother (Pantea Panahiha), lip-syncs to songs with a forced positivity that grates at her husband (Hasan Ma’juni), laid up in the backseat with a broken leg. Their two sons are also in tow, the younger brother (Rayan Sarlak) a loud, chaotic force of nature, and the older, grown brother (Amin Simiar) taciturn and somber. Panahi’s camera is observant, but purposefully keeps its distance, preferring simply to sit back and watch these four as they spar and argue and avoid the tragic reason for their current circumstance. Suffice to say that Hit the Road is an avowedly political film, perhaps unsurprising considering the Panahi family history. 

In spite of the darkness of the circumstances – or perhaps even because of, in the way that families must be in hard times – the film maintains a good humour and a spry, gentle language, allowing the film to unfold patiently and with great care. The four performances are remarkable, particularly Panahiha, who is utterly devastating as a mother deeply afraid for the safety of her children. As with the films of his predecessors, Hit the Road slowly bubbles to an incredible emotional peak, and it’s to Panahi’s credit that he does not pander to sentimentality or easy outs for his characters, finding instead a resolute and resilient humanity in even the harshest and most unforgiving of conditions. It’s a remarkably assured debut, one that promises that the gift of great cinema runs deep in the Panahi family.

In cinemas now.

WATCH THE TRAILER HERE