Hit the Road

The debut movie of one of the my favourite Iranian filmmaker Jafar Pahani's son Panah Pahani. A perfect road trip comedy movie with heart stakes and unforgettable characters.

This movie is simultaneously lighter and deeper.

Filled with equal parts goofy laughs, humanistic

warmth and philosophic inquiry. Subtly reveals its deeper layers with a light touch. Talent clearly runs strong within the Panahi family. All the performances were so good, specially the child actor Rayan Sarlak's little brother character deserves to be in the hall of fame of great child characters. He is an absolute gem..

I saw hit the road at Cannes Film Festival and with no prior expectations, was rewarded with a wonderful film, complete with memorable performances from an extremely talented cast. Beautiful and varied landscape shots intersperse the interior of the car where much of the film takes place. Humour (namely from the captivating young actor Rayan Sarlak), well chosen music and great writing, help to balance out the darker undertone of the movie. Mature, bold and most definitely worth watching. Bravo!

"Long takes statically home in on the characters, who are often inside the vehicle in close vicinity to the camera, whose unspoken emotion and poignant expression is what audience dwells on. As an impending departure is on the horizon, feigned playfulness flakes off a mother's face and bares irrepressible sorrow; a father's habitual sulkiness morphs into resigned tenderness and advice-dispensing, yet his prolong incapacitation (with one injured leg in plaster cast) might take on a more figurative signification here. The only constant is the younger son, whose bratty, sassy cuteness inclines to get under one's skin in no time.

However, when the chips are down, a fixed wide shot keeps the emotional leave-taking in the yonder, a scenic composition with people reduced to ciphers, but its effect is no less impactful, the mother's scurrying desperation is all the more visceral in one's imagination. After a botched last goodbye, HIT THE ROAD finishes with a threnody for the moribund pet dog, vicariously it is also for the departed, but the lip-syncing gimmick seems to push the film towards mawkishness."

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Quite a strange road trip adventure that walks the lines of dark comedy as much as those of the unexplained, seemingly unhappy circumstances that keep this family's bizarre dramatics moving along.

As much as you really want to know what exactly is going on, the film still succeeds in serving genuine entertainment with an overall experience of humor and culture through moments of classic songs, references to Western cinema, and the most picturesque Persian landscapes that rival other films where anyone has described the scenery as resembling a painting.

Apart from the general impression left on me from the Farhadi films I discovered earlier this year, this was an even more satisfying, yet completely unexpected selection that now holds a place for me as one of the most scenic, comical, and cosmic Iranian films I've ever seen so far.

If you wanna watch a movie with real human beings as characters and not caricatures, this is your movie. This is a drama with comedy elements. Deadpan humour some times, heart-warming some others. There is a dividing line between "intellectual" and "highbrow". Most artistic movies cross that line. This one didn't. These are real people and their real problems. But there is no misery here, not doom and gloom. There is hope and love, whilst the movie remains heartfelt. Darkness/Light, Cry/Laughter, Hope/Despair. Balancing eternally.

I could never imagine that a kid who yells and screams all the time, would be such an adorable character. Every actor here is excellent, especially the father.

I can't rate it higher because it's not the most interesting movie ever, it's a simple road movie, not something mindblowing. (Still, it kept my interest). But its simplicity is a positive thing, simultaneously. There is a moment in the middle of it, shall i say, pure magic, you will know when you watch it. Even if you don't like this movie, there is no way you won't love this scene.