One fence, four fans and the game of their lives.
Sitting quietly in the corner of a bus, which is full of male Iranian football fans going to the qualifying match between Iran and Japan for the 2006 World Cup, there is a young person trying to keep a certain distance from these fans. In fact this person is a girl in disguise. Offside tells the story of a group of Iranian women who dress as men in order to attend football matches. Women are banned from attending football matches in Iran, where it is thought improper that they should mix with men and be exposed to coarse language
Before the game begins, the disguised girl on the bus is arrested at the entrance to the football ground. She's taken to a holding pen, within the ground but just outside the stadium (hence the film's name, a pun on the football term ‘offside' or out of bounds), to join a group of other female football fans who tried to sneak into the game as men. They are guarded by young soldiers and will be handed over to the vice squad after the match. But before this, they will have to endure the worst kind of torture for a mad-keen football fan: every cheer, every shout of a game, they can hear but cannot see. Worse yet, they must listen to the play-by-play account of a soldier who knows nothing about football. Yet these young girls just won't give up: they use every trick in the book to get a glimpse of the match.
Offside is a smart, energetic comedy that illustrates the fight for women's rights in Iran today.
Special Agent Matti
Offside is exactly the kind of film that the Iranian government needs to see. As agitprop it's a little slow but it gets there in the end.
Any country with an official religion - let alone a theocratic government - always turns into a hell-hole. Offside is celluloid proof.
PG (Mild coarse language, mild themes)
91 minutes (1:31 hours)
Film: 28 September 2006
DVD retail: 7 April 2007
