SummaryA family of four – two middle-aged parents and their sons, one a taciturn adult, the other an ebullient six-year-old – drive across the Iranian countryside. Over the course of the trip, they bond over memories of the past, grapple with fears of the unknown, and fuss over their sick dog.
Directed By:Panah Panahi
Written By:Panah Panahi
Hit the Road
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
91
User score
Generally Favorable
7.1
My Score
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Metascore
Universal Acclaim
93% Positive
26 Reviews
26 Reviews
7% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Aug 1, 2022
100
It’s that blend of heartbreak and joy, profundity and absurdity that is the key to this enchanting movie’s magical spell.
Apr 22, 2022
100
For every laugh the family lets out, for each merry chance encounter they experience—like an oddly hysterical one with a Lance Armstrong-loving cyclist—there are tears shed in secret, cagey deals made in the shadows and the impending separation they inch closer to with every passing moment.
User score
Generally Favorable
73% Positive
24 Ratings
24 Ratings
12% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
15% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
Oct 23, 2023
10
the film manages to deliver a heartbreaking story though the eyes of a child on a road trip, leaving you laughing and crying at the same time.
Dec 8, 2022
9
One of the most wonderful films I've seen in the last decade. Subtle as a snowflake landing on your nose, yet with an undercurrent of sadness and regret that can pierce you as suddenly and deeply as a needle, littered with moments of absurdity and graced with a handful of mesmerisingly strange and beautiful scenes that will linger in your memory for years after you've forgotten everything else. It is gorgeous, and dances on the razor's edge between a number of genres without ever feeling constrained by any one in particular. Every single performance is brilliant; huge, unspoken feelings thrum under the surface of each line. It is huge, and about everything, but simultaneously it's a small film about nothing in particular. It is funny all the way through, heartbreakingly sad all the way through. Ah...just go watch it.
Aug 31, 2021
100
Like this extraordinary, ordinary family, latticed together by love yet supremely alive in their own individual hearts, Panah Panahi is not just part of a tradition, but his own filmmaker, finding new resonances in territory so familiar its power to surprise should have been thoroughly exhausted by now, but that here feels like a whole new universe.
Apr 29, 2022
90
Hit the Road is a quietly powerful yet very funny film about the sacrifices we make for family.
Apr 25, 2022
89
The road trip always has to end, but the excellent Hit the Road introduces an exciting filmmaker whose journey is just beginning.
Jul 29, 2022
80
The film’s tender emotional core is its greatest asset, which is enhanced by inventive tonal shifts and complemented by incredibly fleshed-out characters, a uniformly brilliant cast and naturalistic dialogue that keeps it from lurching into the terrain of sterile realism.
Oct 4, 2021
50
For too much of its running time, Panah Panahi’s film is untethered from any kind of captivating narrative purpose.
Oct 23, 2022
7
This film is quite touching and poignant but only really towards the end - I wasn't overly bothered about it for the most part before then. It depicts a day in the life of a family on a road trip, with their domestic issues and arguments. The young boy was relatively amusing (his energetic enthusiasm at times is certainly somewhat infectious), with some witty dialogue, drawing on the car windows and such like. The scene I really liked showed him cuddling up to his father in a warm jacket/top on the ground, with hail stones landing nearby.
Release Date:Apr 22, 2022
Duration:1 h 33 m
Awards
Luxembourg City Film Festival
• 2 Wins & 3 Nominations
Red Sea International Film Festival
• 2 Wins & 3 Nominations
Indiewire Critics' Poll
• 3 Nominations
