Hit the Road
Panah Panahi's Iranian black comedy-drama heralds a major new talent, none other than the son of Jafar Panahi.
It was that great filmmaker the late Abbas Kiarostami who with his minimalistic style created a new kind of road movie. Other Iranian filmmakers took up his example putting their own personal stamp on it in the process and among them was Jafar Panahi. Hit the Road is the latest film of this kind to reach us and it is entirely apt that it should be the work of Panah Panahi who is Jafar Panahi’s son. The fact that it is his first feature makes it all the more remarkable that it won the Best Film award at the 2022 London Film Festival, a success matched by its winning the equivalent award at Mar del Plata. I am delighted at the warmth of the response it has received and found plenty to admire in it. Nevertheless, honesty compels me to say that I was less than wholly satisfied by it.
Hit the Road is about a family of four and, although their borrowed car is temporarily stationary at the time, when we first meet them they have already set out on their travels. The father, Khosro (Hasan Majuni) has his leg in a plaster cast following a fall and it is his older son, Farid (Amin Simiar), who is at the driving wheel for now. Also on board are mother (Pantea Panahiha) and the family’s younger child (Rayan Sarlak) who is six years old and alarmingly and comically hyperactive. There is one other passenger in the form of the family dog, Jessy, and the whole film will play out on the road.
Comedy is rarely to the fore in Iran’s minimalistic films, but Hit the Road contains much that is humorous albeit alongside hints of underlying tension as the family travel to the border. Crucial to the film’s ability to amuse without forfeiting its credibility is the portrayal of the younger son. Ryan Sarlak inhabits the role perfectly and it is reasonable to suppose that in creating him Panah Panahi, who wrote the piece as well as directing it, may well have been influenced by his father’s hit film of 1995 The White Balloon. Many will remember that film for its central figure, an energetic, loud-voiced and very determined young girl. But, if Hit the Road can readily be linked to other films from Iran, it suggests more distant influences too. If the little boy prompts thoughts of The White Balloon, he also echoes some of the young children to be found in the films of the Japanese director Ozu. Furthermore (and it is this that I most admire about Hit the Road) all four leading players wonderfully convey everyday credibility in exactly the same manner that renders Ozu’s family portraits totally authentic in feeling.
Just occasionally Panahi’s handling of comic details put me in mind of Jacques Tati and another ingredient found here – dialogue in which films are referenced – is again pleasing in a familiar way. Indeed, many have admired the manner in which these engaging aspects co-exist with those moments that suddenly convey the serious side of the situation. There is, for example, a moment early on when the family fear that another car is deliberately following them and the purpose of their journey - is the older son leaving to get married? - is intentionally left unclear for some time. But, if the mood can switch from the humorous to the uneasy and back again, I do myself sense that these changes of gear are a trifle self-conscious rather than feeling wholly natural.
Two features emerge late on which prevent me from regarding this is as a wholly successful film. One scene in particular is so stylised in the way that it is shot that it seems to belong to a different movie altogether. But the real letdown lies in the fact that, while the intention behind the journey becomes somewhat clearer as the film proceeds, it is never revealed in detail. This elusiveness could be connected to the sense of discretion adopted by many Iranian filmmakers in order to avoid getting into trouble with the authorities (even now Panahi senior is in jail). But, whatever the cause, the concluding scenes as a whole struck me as failing to reveal exactly what it was that Panah Panahi wanted to express and that matters. Even a late shot of the young boy singing feels misjudged and I found myself quite unable to decide what was being signified by the lyrics of the song heard at the close.
But none of this should discourage potential viewers from seeing Hit the Road. After all, plenty of people appear not to share my reservations and, even if you should find yourself agreeing with them, there is a great deal in this film to be admired. It is certainly worthy of your attention.
Original title: Jaddeh Khaki.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Pantea Panahiha, Hasan Majuni, Rayan Sarlak, Amin Simiar.
Dir Panah Panahi, Pro Mastanejer Mohajer, Jafar Panahi and Panah Panahi, Screenplay Panah Panahi, Ph Amin Jafari, Ed Amir Etminan and Ashkan Mehri, Music Peyman Yazdanian.
Panah Panahi-Picturehouse Entertainment.
94 mins. Iran. 2021. USA Rel: 22 April 2022. UK Rel: 29 July 2022. Cert. 12A.