OFFSIDE

Directed by Jafar Panahi
Screenplay by Shadmehr Rastin, Jafar Panahi
Starring Sima Mobarak Shahi, Safar Samandar, Shayesteh Irani, M. Kheyrabadi, Ida Sadeghi, Golnaz Farmani

Reviewed by Matthew C. Brown
September 10 2006

I was surprised by Offside. I don't know what I was expecting - something cutesy, something fem-pop empowring like Bend It Like Beckham - but certainly not this. Offsideis a simple, successful on-the-ground cinema verite drama about a handful of girls who want to witness Iran's qualifying soccer game for the 2006 World Cup. Because women aren't permitted in the stadium, they have to disguise themselves in order to attempt entry. And because this film was apparently filmed live during the actual game and in real time with what must have been a largely improvised script, the documentarian flavour makes good use of the dramatic potential of the scenes. I am impressed.

The first major sequence of the film follows one of these girls as she tries to breach the boundaries of the stadium. As I said, I expect that all of this was filmed live during the actual game, because the scope of this film otherwise would be in George Lucas territory. As part of a throng of male spectators that stretches to the horizon, the girl inches closer and closer to the checkpoints in the vast plaza outside the stadium. There is a tremendous use of lateral space here, and long-lens camera blocking to push the girl closer and closer to her goal. There's palpable tension, and true conflict, and for the first time it dawns us that we're not going to be seeing anything trite here. Offside will be a nicely-staged "life happens" character drama.

None of the female actors ever actually get into the stadium, but are instead contained in a holding pen outside the wall awaiting eventual deportation to the Vice Squad headquarters. There's a nice lengthy segment in the middle where a guard must escort one of the girls into the mens' room, which uses a gag involving a mask to make it possible to take what I presume was a stand-in into the actual stadium itself. It's a great scene from start to finish.

Offside doesn't so much conclude as just stop, once the victory celebration has broken out in force and provided the girls an opportunity to escape their captors. Still, I like what has been done here. Shot on gritty digital video and well-paced for performance and character beats, Offside is successful on its on terms and offers brief but unexploitative commentary on the rules Iranian society places upon the interactions between men and women. Worth seeing.