Hit the Road

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Hit the Road

Iran, 2021

In his feature debut, writer-director Panah Panahi (son of Jafar Panahi) spins something wonderful from an activity best known for its exacerbations: the family road trip. When the film opens, they’re already underway: father, in the back seat with a broken leg and their precocious younger boy; mother, silver-haired and up front with their oldest son who’s behind the wheel. (The family dog is in there somewhere, too.) Where they’re going and why is unclear but if their journey has mysterious origins, the family itself feels eminently familiar. Tightly packed in the car, they’re comfortable together with their well-worn affections and rivalries—even if a new anxiety feels very present underneath. At each rest stop, Panahi reveals more of the thriller entangled with his intimate family portrait but in the end it’s the drama of the everyday that wins out—the longing, the hope, and the hurt of parents sending their kid off into the world on their own.

DCP, color, 93 min. Director: Panah Panahi. Screenwriter: Panah Panahi. With: Hassan Madjooni, Pantea Panahiha, Rayan Sarlak, Amin Simiar.

Hit the Road will open theatrically in Los Angeles on May 6, 2022 at the Laemmle Royal in West L.A. and Laemmle Town Center in Encino.

Watch the trailer: