Lewes Film Club- Offside

A crucial World Cup qualifier in Tehran: Iran need to beat Bahrain in order to qualify for the 2006 World Cup tournament in Germany. The whole country is abuzz with excitement; the match is a sell-out, bars are packed with people watching the game on TV. Among the fans trying to get into the stadium are a number of young girls. There’s only one problem: Iran being Iran, women are not allowed to attend football matches, for the fear that they will be morally corrupted by all the swearing that goes on. So the girls have to dress as boys, and try to sneak in past soldiers who are trained to look carefully at faces as well as tickets. Inevitably not all of them make it: they are arrested and put in a pen for the duration of the game, before being carted off to the centre for moral correction.

Neo-realist director Jafar Panahi shoots his film on location in and around the stadium on the day of the match in question using predominantly non-professional actors. In doing so he gently pokes fun at the sexism inherent in the Iranian system. With quick brushtrokes he acutely characterises the girls held in the pen, and their soldier captors. Crucially the latter aren’t demonised: they are conscripts doing an unpleasant job, and as the film goes on they bond with their prisoners. We get to sympathise with them as much as we do with the girls in their charge. A subtle, and strangely gentle movie. DL