Hit the Road

AroView: This impressive debut of director Panah Panahi (son of revered Iranian film-maker, Jafar Panahi) continues in the finest tradition of Iranian cinema.

It’s a road movie of quiet majesty about a stoic Iranian couple who escort their adult son to the Turkish border to smuggle him abroad. Along for the ride, and supplying many of the laughs, is their adorably precocious but hyperactive six-year-old. Like the recent “There is No Evil”, it depicts a simmering desperation brought to bear on ordinary Iranians by the authoritarian state, and consequently suffered the same fate of being banned in its home country and its director being detained.

“The wonderful cast inhabit their roles so fully it’s hard to believe this is not a bona fide family.” ~John Bleasdale, CineVue

“This movie’s power comes in the slow-burning revelations found through the straightaway desert roads and rolling lush hills, which amount to an emotionally wrenching crescendo.” ~Jake Kring-Schreifels, The Film Stage