Hit the Road (2021)

Hit the Road (2021)

A uniquely mysterious spin on the family vacation movie, with a sobering real-world twist

The Very Best

8.4

Movie

Iran
Persian
Comedy, Drama
2021
PANAH PANAHI
Amin Simiar, Hasan Ma'juni, Pantea Panahiha
94 min

What it's about

A chaotic family is on a road trip across a rugged landscape. In the back seat, Dad has a broken leg, Mom tries to laugh when she's not holding back tears, and the youngest keeps exploding into car karaoke. Only the older brother is quiet.

The take

A road trip movie with an unknown destination, Hit the Road plays with our expectations by avoiding any obvious questions we might have, and making us focus on the real important things. Informed by the censorship and persecution faced by critics of Iran's government—including director Panah Panahi's own filmmaker father, Jafar—the film places more focus on the very act of escape and what that can take from a family. And most importantly, through Panahi's skillful direction of rural Iran's varied, beautiful landscapes, he creates a conflicted relationship between character and setting, with entire emotional crescendos playing out just through a single shot of the environment. It's one of the most underappreciated movies of the year.

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