Offside

2006 [PERSIAN]

Comedy / Drama / Sport

Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 94% · 85 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 74% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.3/10 10 9183 9.2K

teheran (tehran), iran football (soccer) match women and society

Director

Jafar Panahi Photo
Jafar Panahi

Top cast

Orock Orock Photo
Orock Orock as
Hadi Saeedi Photo
Hadi Saeedi as Sarbaz
Mohsen Tanabandeh Photo
Mohsen Tanabandeh as Belit Foroush
Ali Roshan Photo
Ali Roshan as

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by howard.schumann 8 / 10

An exuberant comedy with a message

Reviewed by lee_eisenberg 7 / 10

comedy can lighten pretty much anything

Jafar Panahi's comedy-drama "Offside" portrays some women trying to enter a Tehran sports arena from which women are banned. The official reason: lots of foul language, and the soccer players have their legs showing. But of course, it's really a case of sexism. So, most of the movie consists of mild comic relief as the women try to ask the men serious questions about why women are banned from the stadium, and one woman even comes up with her own scheme to defy the men.As I understand, all of Jafar Panahi's movies (this one included) are banned in Iran. The real tragedy is that the CIA's 1953 overthrow of the prime minister and subsequent backing of the brutal shah gave Ayatollah Khomeini an excuse to use his narrow interpretation of the Koran to establish a chauvinistic society, and that George W. Bush's current policy towards Iran gives Mahmoud Ahmadinejad an excuse to act the cowboy and tighten censorship.Above all, this is a neat look at people coming up with ways to challenge the system. Not a great movie, but worth seeing. Considering that all Jafar Panahi's movies are banned, I wonder how he's able to even make them.
Reviewed by paulmartin-2 8 / 10

Very enjoyable film by an important director

This film is being described as a comedy, but it wasn't a comedy at all. Like any Panahi film, it was a very realistic drama depicting the common thread of social inequity and hypocrisy. But it was very funny; much lighter than the director's dark and serious The Circle (my favourite Iranian film). The resourcefulness of the girls and the banter between them and the soldiers was both completely believable (as if it were a documentary) and completely hilarious.The filming the actual match and aftermath was astonishing. It added a realism much like Australia's Kenny, of course a very different film.The performances from all the non-professional actors – soldiers and girls – were very credible. It was very moving to see the passion, disappointment and excitement of these girls. Anyone in this country who thinks Muslim girls wearing a chador are any different to their own daughters should go see this film – it will be a real eye-opener.To me, the soldiers represented the current paradigm. They started out with stock-standard official policy responses to all the pleas of the girls. As the film progressed, they found it more and more difficult to maintain this stance. When what seems like all of Teheran breaks out into wild celebration, everyone is caught up in it, and the ridiculousness of the current policies is obvious to one and all.It was a very moving and unexpected ending, and gave the film a really nice blend of emotions, frivolity, drama and social commentary. Though it's adult cinema, I think mature-minded children from about seven onwards would really appreciate this film (as long as they can read subtitles).It is remarkable that a repressive country like Iran is able to produce films of such quality by the likes of Panahi and Kiarostami. Perhaps the constraints there force directors to be extremely resourceful. Australian (and other) film makers could take a leaf out of their book.
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