Moviegoing Memories is a series of short interviews with filmmakers about going to the movies. Panah Panahi's Hit the Road is MUBI GO's Film of the Week in the US for April 29, 2022.
Panah Panahi (right) on the set of Hit the Road (2021).
MOVIEGOING MEMORIES
HIT THE ROAD
NOTEBOOK: How would you describe your movie in the least amount of words?
PANAH PANAHI: An emotional roller coaster.
NOTEBOOK: Where and what is your favorite movie theater? Why is it your favorite?
PANAHI: The movie theaters after the revolution are usually built in the shopping malls and I really don’t like going there as it’s everything but cultural. However, I have a heartwarming recollection of my parents taking me to an open air cinema in the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults. That was and still is my absolute favorite movie theater.
NOTEBOOK: What is the most memorable movie screening of your life? Why is it memorable?
PANAHI: Well, most movies I watched outside of a movie theater, as the foreign movies were rarely shown here. But I still remember the “taste” of a movie I used to go to near the hospital where my mother worked. After school I would join my mother at her work place and she would send me to that movie theater close by where I saw many times: The Singing Cat. It’s still my favorite movie; remembrance of things past, I guess.
NOTEBOOK: If you could choose one classic film to watch on the big screen, what would it be and why?
PANAHI: That would be 2001: A Space Odyssey. I would love to watch it on the big screen. What we call cinema is for me best represented and summarized in this movie.