By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Panah Panahi
Starring: Amin Simiar | Hasan Majuni | Pantea Panahiha | Rayan Sarlak
Original language title: Jaddeh Khaki
Country: iran
Year: 2022
Running time: 93
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14812782/reference/
Brett says: “HIT THE ROAD is an emotional gut punch disguised as a family road trip flick. In this feature film directorial debut from Panah Panahi, the audience slips into anomaly after anomaly underneath what is presented otherwise as a good-natured set of family banter inside a SUV, destination unknown. It is a slow-working quicksand but decorated to veil the inevitable.
“A mother, father, two sons, and the family dog are on a trip, but the details of which are not revealed with the usual informational convenience afforded in the expositions of many narratives of this type. Instead, the audience is left partially in the dark along with the youngest son, who is at the center of the film, naively playing along with the family and whose utterances are nonsensical at times but ironically on point in other moments. It is this cat and mouse game of innocence and unwelcomed realities that the viewer is caught in throughout the picture. Guiding the experience further are atmospheric and poetic shots that do a terrific job of mirroring and/or exposing the alternative significance behind the trip itself. One moment in particular is a powerful, unexpected visual representation of a seemingly random conversation that takes place just a few scenes prior and gives it life beyond its original intent. Furthermore, it would be a crime of omission not to mention how the film’s soundtrack and musical score play a critical role in the emotional overtones at play here.
“Two other films jump to mind during the screening of this picture. There is a playful and patient tone reminiscent of LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE on one hand. The task of covering up what lies beneath the surface through clown-like humorous moments also brings LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL narrative comparisons to mind as well. The hit-or-miss quality of this one relies heavily on what audiences’ reactions to the seemingly meaningless ramblings between the child protagonist and his various adult adversaries of wit throughout the film will be. (And it must be noted, the film is saturated with plenty of these types of scenes.) For this viewer, the randomness of these moments never felt as random and natural as it seems the intent is. On the contrary, the spastic nature of the young lead character was less endearing and more contrived and forced, if anything. Again, different viewers will likely have an entirely enjoyable experience in these series of ramblings that comprise well over half the film. Charm aims at varying bullseyes, and my personal target just happened to be off-center of where this one intends to hit its mark.
“Arguably, the character most interesting is the mother played by Pantea Panahiha. Acting with faux joy while making the hidden trauma evident without seeming like a stretch or forced acting is incredibly difficult to portray. However, her ability to pull this off—getting smiles and joy out of the audience while quickly pulling the rug out from under them in a heartbeat with boiling emotional pain —is the real standout character development on display here.
“This is the type of film that will be a grand slam with many viewers, one that has the hidden gem quality that people want to shout about from the mountaintops that accompanies the thrill of discovering something with so little mainstream buzz. With that said, it’s certainly worth the watch to test the waters and see if your particular bullseye is in alignment with this film’s emotional target. 3 cats out of 5“
Tom M. says: “I loved it… brilliantly subversive…
“Iranian filmmaker Panah Panahi’s debut is right in line with the films of his father, Jafar, whose great dissident-leaning works include THE CIRCLE (2000), OFFSIDE (2006) and THE WHITE BALLOON (1995), all in their own way measured jabs at Iran’s theocratic oppression of women. The Iranian government has the ability to review scripts and the work of films in progress and squash them along the way, or ban them, if they feel the final cut demeans or could trigger any kind of political action against the establishment. THE CIRCLE, about a group of women in jail for what we would consider jaywalking, was banned in Iran yet played arthouse venues everywhere else. Jafar Panahi was placed under house arrest in 2010 and prohibited from making films for 20 years, yet in 2011 we got THIS IS NOT A FILM, shot mostly on an iPhone from his apartment in Tehran. The document of his imprisonment starring a lethargic iguana was allegedly smuggled out of the country on a flash drive inside a cake.
“Panah Panahi too cooks up something politically barbed in HIT THE ROAD, though it takes a while to get where HIT THE ROAD is heading. We begin with a semi-joyous car ride across relatively barren terrain where a not-quite-nuclear family partakes in raucous car karaoke. In the back seat, dad (Hasan Majuni) has a broken leg. Back there with him is his highly animated, highly mercurial 5-year-old son (Rayan Sarlak), with the older brother (Amin Simiar) up front clutching the wheel of the lux SUV and looking dour despite the seemingly festive mood. Mom (Pantea Panahiha) is up front too, perched in the passenger seat, trying to hold order as much as she can when younger brother flies off into one of his many impish snits.
“We never get names, and in addition to the older brother’s defeated look there are small cracks of something bigger going on – that broken leg, a random SIM card, a sick dog in the way, way back and the revelation that the SUV was borrowed in desperate haste. Clearly this is not a fun-seeking family excursion or a bonding getaway to some desired destination, but a mission, if not a fleeing. To say more would be to ruin the mesmerizing enigma of a poignant and provocative existential odyssey that would make a great double bill with Kelly Reichardt’s MEEK’S CUTOFF (2010; and yes, the name refers to an ancestor of mine).
“The cinematic renderings of the wind-sculpted landscape by Amin Jafari, who worked with Jafar Panahi on 3 FACES in 2018, stun. The key to the film’s triumph, however, is the soulful performances by the all-in cast. Majuni casts his compassionate patriarch as a wounded old lion, while Panahiha conveys much with an angular face that has the same kind of ageless grace that has come to define Catherine Deneuve – and boy, can she bounce and hop when the music moves her. And of course the young Sarlak, whose mood swings from hellacious terror to teeming bundle of joy, buoys and underscores the dichotomy of bigger, bittersweet what’s-going-on. With his raw innocence, he doesn’t seem to be in on the what-and-the-why of their hie; he lives in the moment and, for the most, is the only one in the family focused on that dog in the back. 4 1/2 cats”
(Review originally published in the Cambridge Day.”