This editorial illustration was created for Beneficial Shock! magazine to accompany an article about Panah Panahi’s film Hit the Road (2021). The piece reflects on themes of exile, family and freedom, as a family secretly drives their eldest son to the Turkish border to escape Iran. The car becomes a symbol of both intimacy and confinement — a small, fragile world set against the vast, empty desert.

For the visual concept, I explored this duality between closeness and distance, interior and exterior, using light and composition to contrast the warmth of family ties with the tension of departure. The aim was to capture the film’s quiet emotional power without resorting to overt drama, mirroring Panahi’s restrained cinematic style.

Published in Beneficial Shock!, Issue “Journeys and Destinations”.

Art Direction: Gabriel Solomons
Text: Karim Goury

Sketches: