Hit the Road

 Recently I had a chance to watch Panah Panahi's movie "Hit the Road" on the big screen. The scenes were so beautiful, and the emotions were subtle but powerful. It made me realize themes of loss, fear of uncertainty and family are so universal, regardless of country, culture, time.

There is this scene in particular, which I clipped from the trailer video below, that really surprised me.

What's the focus of this scene? It looks like a photo of a landscape on Instagram. Beautiful clouds, three trees that frame the scenery. The camera does not move throughout this entire scene. All we see is this landscape, the small silhouettes of the characters in the far distant. Yet, their emotions never felt so close to us. We hear the mother fussing about her son's attire and how if he's not dressed warm enough he'll get sick. We hear the son refusing all this fuss and trying to hide his stress and sadness of his departure. The father, hopping along on his foot that isn't broken, not saying much, but we know how he feels. And on top of everything, we hear the younger brother scream and howl, whilst tied to a tree.

There is the sadness of departure, of uncertainty in this scene. We also witness the restraint to not let emotions take over. We feel the stoic, almost defeatist, atmosphere after the son had left. But we also don't forget the comic-tragic situation of the boy who is too innocent to understand what's going on.

I had never seen a scene that could express so much yet show so little of the actual characters. We can deduce all their feelings from their voices. No close up of their faces, no zooming, panning, no soundtrack. Just this picturesque frame of nature.

Nature is so oblivious to human suffering. It doesn't matter how we feel, what we're doing, the clouds and the sun will be there. The open fields and the old trees won't be moving. And only humans, people in the audience, people in this movie, can imagine and sympathize with the mother's grief, the father's sadness, the big brother's fears and the small brother's frustration.