Hit the Road

The Brief

In Hit the Road, we follow a family of four traveling through the barren Iranian countryside in a silver-gray SUV. In the front sit the mother and adult son, while in the back the father with a cast on his leg sits with the hyperactive six-year-old younger brother and the family dog. They are heading toward the border, but it takes a long time before we learn why, and although the journey is marked by seriousness and the certainty that nothing will be the same after this, they also have a lot of fun along the way. Panah Panahi's irresistible debut film is a bittersweet road trip that mixes humor and gravity – classic Iranian pop songs and criticism of the clerical regime – into a fresh and moving road movie from a director who already emerges as a distinctive and clearly defined voice.