Hit the Road (Jaddeh Khaki - 2021)

This highly-reviewed Iranian movie about a family's road trip is amusing with beautiful pictures of the countryside but left me confused about the purpose of their travel. I had some guesses but didn't figure it all out (more on that in a moment). The parents and two sons (a rebellious six year old and a taciturn young adult) all have well-defined characters, as played by Pantea Panahiha (mother), Hassan Madjooni (father), Rayan Sarlak (little brother), and Amin Simiar (big brother).

Director/writer Panah Panahi, whose father Jafar Panahi is evidently an acclaimed filmmaker, makes his feature debut inspired, according to Wikipedia, by Panah's and others' exiles from Iran. Wiki also says they're driving to the Turkish border to smuggle their older son out of the country and this New Yorker review explains why. New Yorker reviews are usually rife with spoilers (so I read them only after watching) but, this time, there's an actual warning.

A Spotify playlist has about a half hour of music, none of which is by the composer Peyman Yazdanian.

As I mentioned above, Rotten Tomatoes' critics are riding high with a 95% average (so far it has 11 wins and 16 other nominations) while its audiences are cruising more slowly at 75. I watched it on Showtime (it's also available on Paramount+) on August 9.