Synopsis

Who is that strange boy sitting quietly in the corner of a bus full of screaming fans going to the football match? In fact, this shy boy is a girl in disguise.

She is not alone; women also love football in Iran. Before the game begins, she is arrested at the check point and put into a holding pen just by the stadium with a band of other women all dressed up as men. They will be handed over to the vice squad after the match.



But before this, they will be tortured! They must endure every cheer, every shout of a game they 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 see the match. A smart comedy illustrating the violation of women’s rights in Iran. ––allmovie guide

Cast: Sima Mobarak Shahi, Safar Samandar, Shayesteh Irani, M. Kheyrabadi, Ida Sadeghi

*****

Director Jafar Panahi's Offside premiered at the Berlin film festival on Friday. The comedy uses soccer mania to highlight the struggle for women's rights in Iran. Panahi has used a cast of first-time actors to portray a group of girls who disguise themselves as boys to attend a World Cup qualifier at a Tehran stadium, which women are forbidden from entering. 

Jafar Panahi is best known for The White Balloon and The Circle, the winner of the Venice Film Festival in 2000. He said Offside aims to "bring to people's attention that a lot of people actually can't exercise their most fundamental rights".

However, he dodged a question about the impact of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's new government on the atmosphere in Iran.

"I've always emphasised that I'm a socially minded filmmaker. I'm not a political filmmaker," Panahi told reporters.

He added that he hopes to have Offside screened in Iran before this summer's World Cup finals, but has yet to get permission. (Text from ndtvmovies.com)