Sayantan Dutta Well I am not an expert in the field of Iranian so called "New Wave Film" movement. The reader should not expect here an expertise discourse.I'm not an expert. I've not yet managed to see a lot of Iranian films, made by leading directors like Abbas Kiarostami, Majid Majidi of Jafar Panahi. My relationship to these movies is through just one man. Jafar Panahi, the rebel. Rebel, but not the prototype like Guevara, or artistic rebel, like Beethoven. He is Jafar Panahi. And that's all. Any work of art can be judged by two aspects. Either It can be judged by putting it into its context. That type of judgment deserves a lot of research, better for a book. Another type, may be, not completely out of context at all, but judging a work of art through its sheer brilliance and universality solely offered by the unique work which it to be judged. I've seen two of Jafar Panahi movies before Offside. They were post-banned film, 'This is not a film', and 'Taxi'.I think in order to discuss Offside, above mentioned two is not very much important, because from offside to Taxi, there are a sea change in the style. But content matters. And here again, in offside, the form and content merged in an unique 'Panahian' way, just like other two. Narrative style of story telling unfolds the characters, the conflicts, and ends with a joy, mixed with a little bit of ambiguity.In the disguise of the story, the director managed to put some very strong arguments, that is necessarily important, and universal. That's why, even not being a Iranian, not being a Muslim (here important, because the treatment of women in Muslim is quite different), I can relate with the simple disguised words. I'm not going to discuss the story. But the way of treating the story deserves a word of two. The time span is very compact, that's why the tone and rhythm is almost managed through out the movie. Any nation wants to treat their citizens in their own self-made way. The most powerful scene in this movie happened, when one of the prisoner girl argued with the soldier, why they are not allowed inside the stadium. This single sequence is enough for Panahi to reveal the paradox in the mind of nation's bodyguards. The director is here unique, because of his treatment to the soldiers. He didn't make them villains, but a simple friendship created throughout the 'prison'-'out of prison' game. This friendship is very important. The Nation should know there are the relationships between a man and a woman, that may be, and in general more that sexual desire.A must watch movie even for non movie lovers.

SnoopyStyle It's a World Cup qualifier between Iran and Bahrain. A girl tries to sneak into the stadium among the men. She's caught right away at the main gate. She's brought to a holding pen just outside one of the doorways. The girls can't see the action and keep trying to convince the guards to let them go.The start of the movie is a bit of a thriller as the girl tries to get into the stadium. I really like the first act. Once she's caught, the movie does meander. There is some comedic touches but not all of it translates well. It's a bit silly and doesn't have the expected tension. It works and it doesn't work. They are doing some guerrilla filming at an actual game. It gets a pass because of the unusual subject matter.

Framescourer 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

johnnyboyz Which do you think the average person would know more/less about: Iranian cinema or Iranian football? Interestingly, the two come to the forefront of controversial Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi's latest film entitled 'Offside', a tale that uses football or access to football as a backdrop for a series of scenes revolving around one's right to do something or go somewhere and an individual's right to extend that courtesy if and when they'd like to. The odd thing is, you don't come away from Offside having learnt about Iranian football or too much about Iranian cinema (unless it's an education in Panahi's controversial style), but you do come away feeling enlightened, that at least someone from Iran has taken a controversial issue that is clearly still very much in force in a nation like Iran, and is willing to present it to an international audience rather than exploit it.I can remember the 2006 World Cup, I'm sure many people can. It was the summer after my initial year out at university and after the slog that was my first year, a summer of World Cup football acted as a nicely timed tonic. Needless to say, I saw practically every game bar the ones they show simultaneously with the other ones at the very end of the group stages so that to avoid incidences as seen in Spain '82 when it was thought West Germany and Austria transpired to get a result between them that would see them both through at the expense of Algeria.Anyone in Britain that was watching the BBC's broadcast of the Iran – Mexico game, both nations' first of the tournament, may remember that at the top of the show, the BBC's football anchorman Gary Lineker let off a snide comment to introduce the match. It went something like: 'We've seen giants Germany, England, Argentina and Holland play but now we get to see.........Mexico and Iran battle it out'. The emphasis on the latter two being inferior was clear and that maybe watching them was a chore. It's a shame because there are people, and films like Offside present them, who are really willing to see Iran play to the point where they risk their well-being to achieve it and it's sad when people in a position of power dismiss what they deem 'inferior' when there are others who'd do anything to have the chance to otherwise engage.When immediately thinking of the words 'Iran', 'football' and 'World Cup', my mind flies back to the France '98 game between said nation and America. Here is a film about a World Cup game of sorts involving Iran but where some or indeed most Iranian filmmakers may well have opted to present a tale revolving around Iran's famous victory over The United States and what that meant to them, director Panahi chooses to look at what goes on behind the scenes and presents a story from the stands as women are barred from football matches and are not allowed to live the ecstasy of winning a game of immense magnitude. You can imagine a heavy handed film detailing Iran's 'victory' as a lumbering propaganda film designed to exploit as they 'defeat' a Western power or 'enemy' at a sport they perhaps were not expected to do so in.A couple of films that spring to mind when it comes to beating the unbeatable at their own game are 2001 Indian film 'Lagaan', in which the Indian peasants defeat the ruling British at cricket. Similalry, 2005's 'The Game of Their Lives' sees the Americans defeat the English at a football match only this time in the 1950 World Cup. The differences between these films and Offside are immense; Offside is looking at a situation behind a state's mentality and dares to explore an essence of Feminism as the girls, trying to see their beloved Iran defeat Bahrain and qualify for the World Cup, are rounded up like animals and kept in a crude purgatory mere feet from a barred window that would allow them to see the game. The reasoning is to do with the foul language the men 'may', not will, but 'may' use during the game. The film presents Iran as so incompetent that they cannot take away a man's right to swear and ban the bad language but must ban a woman's right to see the game all together – it is no wonder Panahi's film was itself banned in Iran.But Panahi remembers to include what makes the rule so crazy in the first place by frequently allowing his female characters to both smoke cigarettes and use mobile phones, two things the doctors and scientists will have you think are far more dangerous to the human body/mind than hearing a little bit of foul language at a football match. Panahi pays special attention to the title of his film 'Offside' which itself is a ruling within football detailing when an 'attacker' is 'caught' trying to gain an advantage in the field of play. The parallels run with the womens' position in the film as these advancing (supposedly without right) individuals are caught trying to put one over the opposition team; that being the state itself.I think Offside is one of the better films to come out of the Middle East and surrounding Gulf area that I've seen. It's a tense but humbling film about people who do not carry any acting history according to the IMDb and thus, the acting is raw and real adding that quaint neo-realist aura to it all. The immediate ending is haunting and the constant verbal battle between the male soldiers and female wrong-doers who dared to defy the state is wonderful. I also think for anyone to actually dislike the film for the reasons I've mentioned shows a distinct level of callous, either that or you work in the Iranian government.