"Warn the people, he's an idiot!" Dad (Hasan Majuni)
So it goes for six-year-old Little Brother (Rayan Sarlak, watch for him in the future) as dad prepares anyone outside the family that they have a dynamo for a child, whose older brother is quite the opposite in his quietude. The family is on a secret journey in Panah Panahi's debut Hit the Road, set in the bleak plains of Iran but full of family shenanigans, not quite as light as in Little Miss Sunshine, but having the same surprises of joy and sorrow plaguing any road journey in film, and sometimes in life itself not on the screen but in our own vans.
Reflecting the Iranian New Wave with cinematography and background worthy of Waiting for Godot (even one shot with a single tree against a barren landscape), Hit the Road is about an uncertain destination to the northern border with an uncertain fate awaiting travelers, especially in a world as chaotic as Iran. It would seem the family is not only delivering but also escaping a fate they only partially control.
The shifting tones from comedy to drama--the boy without his cell and the older brother without a future-- show a young director already in charge of his craft.
Emblematic of the riotous life of a very bright but eccentric family is the contradictory relationship between dad and Little Brother, who banter in a beautiful fantasy scene about Batman while Little can equally be chastised for being loud and provocative (he's precocious, if you couldn't tell). Also telling is the long wide shot by cinematographer Amin Jafari where something quietly tragic is happening, set on a riverbank evocative of Ingmar Bergman's iconic Seventh Seal long shots.
Oddly-placed musical numbers are a welcome respite from the growing sense of doom, and another clue to the happiness that may bless the family, if not on this journey.
As lovely Mom (Pantea Panahiha) provides the moderating influence among the warring factions of the family, she also carries the melancholy of one who knows the separation and tragedy that fate will eventually deliver along life's journey.
Hit the Road is a family-trip masterpiece from a 37-year-old director whose legendary director dad would be proud. Among the laughter and tears is a common thread for humanity: Just keep going.
