Hit the Road Review

Hit the Road is an Iranian road film that won plaudits at the Cannes and London film festivals.

Farid (Amin Simiar) plans to cross the Iranian-Turkish border and seek a better life abroad. His mother (Pantea Panahiha) does not want Farid to make the trip alone and his father, Khosro (Hassan Madjooni) had made the arrangements with the smugglers, so the whole family travels across Iran to see Farid off.

Hit the Road was Panah Panahi’s directional debut. It reminded me of advice given at the London Screenwriting Festival where they recommended a road movie as a good project as a first feature film. They have characters on a literal journey, have a small cast of characters, and it can be made on a reasonable budget. Panahi’s followed that advice for Hit the Road.

Hit the Road was a story that goes from a paved highway in the desert, to a dirt road, to high up in the mountains. It was physically and mentally a tough journey for the family. The physical side was obvious because it was a long trip where they went through harsher terrain. Mentally, there were issues. There were relatable issues like going on a family journey with a rambunctious child and there were tensions between the parents and Farid. They argued, they were stressed and there were tensions between them. An example of this was when the mother tried to lighten the mood by lip-syncing to a song on the radio and Farid snapped, telling her he’s not a child.

The stress and tension were also highlighted by the mum’s paranoia. One of the first things she did find out was that her younger son secretly had a mobile phone and she panics about what to do. The paranoia continued when she thought their car was being followed by the authorities. The family sacrificed everything for their son. Western audiences can get a feeling of what it would be like to live in an authoritarian country. It was bold for an Iranian film to be this openly critical of the Iranian state.

The sense of danger was added to when the characters arrived in the mountains. The family had to act like they were on an espionage mission when they had to communicate with the smugglers. When a smuggler appeared, he was an intimidating figure because he was wearing a white mask and riding a motorbike.

A lot of the film was told from the child’s eyes view. The film opened with the younger son playing with a drawing of a piano on his father’s leg cast and the family was already in the middle of their journey. He didn’t understand why his mother took his phone and when the boy saw the smuggler, he compared them to the Batman villain Scarecrow. His parents attempt to keep their younger son in the dark about what Farid was doing and about Jesse the dog’s illness.

Panahi did have a slow and methodical style of direction. There were lots of scenes shot as long static takes. It was great for the actors, especially for Panahiha who was terrific. However, this style of direction had one big drawback: it made scenes feel drawn out.

Hit the Road has been classed as a comedy-drama. The younger son did provide humour because of his antics. Audiences can relate in some way because they have children or were that child. There was an incident with a cyclist that was played for laughs, especially when he said Lance Armstrong was his hero. There were witty interactions and incidents, like the dog running when tied to a plastic chair.

Hit the Road manages to be a film that was universal and told a more specific story. The universality came from the family interactions, whilst to Western audiences it was an extraordinary situation.