Hit the Road

Hit the Road works in enough familiar ways that critics can safely place it within a certain tradition. But it’s also hopefully the start of something new.

Few movie premises are more familiar than a family road trip -- and though it may not be immediately clear where the nameless characters in Panah Panahi’s Hit the Road are headed, while we’re riding along with them, it’s easy to feel at home.

Panahi is the son of the imprisoned filmmaker Jafar Panahi, one of Iran’s greatest living artists. He has his father’s subtle touch for interpersonal dynamics and for light tales that build to surprising hidden depths.

It’s that blend of heartbreak and joy, profundity and absurdity that is the key to this enchanting movie’s magical spell.

What really makes Hit the Road fly, however, is the fizzy interplay between the superb core actors. No offence is meant by noting parallels with a similarly nomadic family in Little Miss Sunshine.

... Spare and subtle, but endlessly powerful too.

The rawness and the expressions captured in Hit the Road make the journey even more special, and when the youngest family member sticks his head through the sunroof and blissfully yells the chorus of the song, everything comes together.

In best road movie fashion, Hit the Road also serves as a travelogue as the family passes pistachio-like hills, hot springs, and babbling brooks.

Panahi and his actors shift through emotions so smoothly, you barely notice them until they have immersed you.

As the answers slowly come into focus — the family is travelling through rural Iran towards the border — Hit the Road transforms from a light-hearted, funny road movie into a heart-breaking multi-tragedy.