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Purely Joyful Movie!

Don't listen to the negative reviews

A Major Disappointment

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Jafar Panahi is a talented filmmaker who was punished by the Iranian government for making films which were unacceptable to the religious zealots running the country. As a result, he's been banned from making films and is stuck there...but he STILL makes the occasional film despite the ban. One of his many banned films is "Offsides" and I can only assume it was banned because it questions the new rules that say that women are not allowed into sporting events to see them. The story is about a group of women who have disguised themselves as men in order to see a soccer game...and many of them are caught! But what's to become of these brave women? See the film and find out for yourself.This story by Panahi is similar to most of his other films because it looks less like a fancy movie and almost as if Panahi and his crew simply filmed real events. There are no sets...they film at a stadium and appear to have used some soccer match as an occasion to make the film. It's an economical way to film and worked very well in this case.So what radical message was the director trying to get across with this particular movie? Well, it's all about women trying to sneak into a World Cup qualifying soccer match by dressing up as men. It seems that in Iran, women are not allowed to even sit amongst the men or in women only section but are condemned to watch the match on television. These women, while radical for their sneaking in, are an interesting contrast as they are still rabidly pro-Iran and cheer madly for the team and never say anything against the status quo...they just want to see the game. My wife was surprised and said it was odd that they would choose something as mundane as a sporting event in order to take their stand for equality...and she's right. And, to me that is what made this such an exemplary film. It can be small ways in which sexism can be addressed....and using humor and likable characters, Panahi has constructed an engaging film and possibly one of his very best pictures. Well made and simple...yet in its way wildly subversive.

On December 20th in 2010, an acclaimed Iranian director Jafar Panahi was sentenced to six years in prison and banned for the next twenty years from film-making, political activity, traveling or giving interviews to the media. This incident brought the already well-known director to new popularity. Therefore, his films have been recently watched and studied again and again. In 1995 he started with his cheerful debut The White Balloon and continued making such films. Although, The Mirror (1997), his second film, was a much more complex study about the illusionary reality of film it was still a comedy focusing on a child. His next film -- and to my mind his finest -- The Circle (2000) differed a lot from his earlier works. It was a ruthless and dark film about the depressive situation of Iranian women. Panahi continued this desolate vision in Crimson Gold (2003) which was also banned by the Iranian governance. However, in this case, Offside marked a turning point for the director. Even though it was still characterized by melancholy and oppression, it was a warm satire about women who wanted to watch football.In Offside football means a celebration of solidarity for men to which women aren't invited. Because of this, they try to invent wacky methods that would get them into the stadium. The others are inexperienced and the others are braver than most men. All the women who are caught for doing this are put behind bars, guarded by a group of young soldiers, until the game ends -- after which they will be transfered to jail or, in worst case scenario, death row. At its heart, Offside is all about the verbal battle between the women, or girls actually, and the soldiers. In this battle, the girls have a better position because the soldiers don't really have any real reasons for their acts. They have no explanations nor answers. There are no valuable reasons for the oppression of women and even they have to accept it. In fact, soon we find out that the soldiers don't like their job either.Not surprisingly, Panahi doesn't blame the people for this, and all the characters -- even the soldiers -- are very sympathetic and loyal. The mindlessness of the social situation is most brilliantly illustrated in one scene where a soldier must take one of the girls to the toilet. She must hide her eyes, so she wouldn't see the fierce writings on the walls of the men's room (because there is no ladies' room at the stadium). It is obvious that Panahi criticizes the system, not the people. He loves his land but dislikes the governance. As a comedy, Offside doesn't rise to the level of Panahi's finest works but it is a delightful film; yet filled with horrible things. It carries light to the dark, so to speak, and therefore can easily be associated with the neo-realist films in postwar Italy. Offside, as Panahi's last film before his imprisonment, is a sparkler in the dark.

A remarkable film, Offside is basically a documentary, filmed on location prior to, during and after an actual game in Tehran. The cast are half a dozen girls who try to steal into the stadium to watch the game and the soldiers who, having caught them, must take charge of them. The acting, particularly from the men, is variable, but there is a nice variety of character in the cast of young women to whom the camera naturally gravitates.In fact, this film isn't really about the girls at all. Rather, it's about Iran and the Iranian people. It's a hugely compassionate film and Panahi's skill is in managing the sorority between the girls, the erosion of the soldiers' discipline and the city-wide joy at victory on the pitch as entirely natural, co-dependent outcomes. He also refuses to introduce a single character onto whom blame for the frankly ridiculous exclusion of women can be pinned.Panahi is not a militant, rather a sharp observer of contradictions (often coming over as humour). My favourite sequence involves a soldier agreeing to chaperone a captive girl to the men-only lavatory just before half-time. There's a sense of danger, but one cannot tell who or what is actually in danger. It's very fluid and unstable.The idea that this film and it's creator can be imprisoned (Dec 2010) by the country for which it clearly bursts with affection is preposterous. 5/10

Different film directors from different countries have contributed to the film medium a lot by their thoughts. As a result, we have experienced different genres when the medium is concerned. Jafar Panahi, unlike J.L. Godard or F. Truffault, believes in simple story telling; Schematic Narratives is one of the main traits of his directorial job. He has trust upon the automatic as well as critical intelligence of the viewer; he does not feel any necessity to go for Alienation or such things to reach to the viewers. He is equally effective despite being conventional. Offside (2006), is another schematic creation from him, where Gender Subordination of Middle-East Asia gets gradually clear to everybody as the simple but catchy tale of the movie progresses. Now-a-days, when all of us are shouting on the issue of Rights of Women, this movie very calmly creeps into our mind and ultimately becomes a hump for our critical intelligence by conveying the message that the Egality of Human Rights is nothing but an illusive good, an utopia. Paternity will never let the women to be empowered. An important soccer match where the nation is participating, a teenage girl who understands the game well, loves her nation does not have the rights to enter into the stadium to cheer for her country. She is merely permitted to listen to the live commentary. Her alias could not work for her. As a result, she had to undergo several humiliating situations. From the very beginning her worried father ran here and there for her daughter. At the end of the day, celebration came as the nation won the match which the girl could not see as she was detained in the outer side of the stadium during the match time. But the celebration cannot suppress the question of Rights of Women which remain in every corner of the world in different format. Jafar Panahi has most successfully pointed to this issue of Gender Abuse from with in the frame of conventional film making and patriarchy as well. A Global Tragedy has been dealt with ease and some times with humour which, in turn, teases our being constantly.