`Offside (2006)

Directed by: Jafar Panahi | 88 minutes | drama, comedy | Actors: Sima Mobarak Shahi, Safar Samandar, Shayesteh Irani, M. Kheyrabadi, Ida Sadeghi, Goldaz Farmani, Mahnaz Sabihi, Nazanin Sedighzadeh, M. Kheymeh Kabood, Mohsen Tanabandeh, Reza Farhadi, MR Gharadaghi

That love for football knows no boundaries is once again apparent from the Iranian comedy ‘Offside’. Six young girls who are crazy about football try to enter the stadium individually as Iran plays a decisive qualifier against Bahrain. Because women are not allowed to enter the stadium, they disguise themselves as boys, with baggy clothes and long hair tied up under a cap. Once caught, they are herded into a sort of stockyard, close to the stands. Despite the surveillance, they try to catch as much of the game as possible. A direct report from one of the guards is a good start, although according to the ladies the guard knows little about it.

This simple story has resulted in a strong film. In large part, that is due to the non-professional actresses who play the lead roles. They are realistic and funny characters, from the girl who plays soccer herself to the tough girl who drives the guards officer to despair with her logical reasoning. The cutest of the bunch is a girl who is so bold as to disguise herself as a soldier and immediately claims a place in the grandstand. Unfortunately for her, that place is reserved for senior officers.

Although the tone of ‘Offside’ is light-hearted and relaxed, the film offers quite sharp criticism of the nonsensical rules of the Iranian government. Once trapped behind their fences, the girls argue with the young guards; not only about the catastrophic tactics (according to the girls) of the Iranian national coach, but especially about the reasons why they are not allowed to go to football. The soldiers answer with the arguments they have learned, but they soon prove untenable. In this way, guards and prisoners – peers and of equally modest origin – increasingly converge.

While ‘Offside’ is mainly a comedy, a particularly funny one, it is director Panahi’s realistic, almost documentary approach that ensures that the film also regularly moves. Whoever sees the girls standing behind their gates like this, with their caps, their shawls, the colors of Iran painted on their cheeks, the despair and passion in their eyes, cannot help but feel sorry for them. These are not activists or insurgents but simple girls who love not only football but also their country.

Many films have been made about the oppression of Iranian women, but rarely in this form. No heavy drama, no complicated symbolism, but an accessible, light-hearted, intelligent and optimistic story about a couple of unstoppable football fans. The result is one of the best films of 2006.