Offside (2006)

I think this might be my favourite from Jafar Panahi as it takes a more comedic approach to his critical evaluation of modern day life in Iran. It’s a big day in the sporting calendar with their national team facing Bahrain for a spot in the 2006 World Cup. Ostensibly to protect them from the outrageous behaviour of the menfolk, girls are banned from entering the stadium but a few of them are not to be deterred. Donning a range of disguises they attempt to blag their way in past the touts, the attendants and the ever vigilant soldiers. Some do manage to sneak in, but a few are apprehended and detained in a holding pen tantalisingly close to a view of the pitch - but they are still not permitted to watch. Initially, the girls request that one of their captors provide a running commentary, then another needs to use the facilities - the all male facilities, that is; and then my favourite turns up dressed as a ballsy soldier (Mahnaz Zabihi) who actually made it into a seat in the VIP stand before being caught. She's certainly for the high jump. Their guards are hardly the most menacing, indeed as the girls engage and the match progresses we get a sense that they don’t really know why they are there nor why their charges are to be handed over to the dreaded vice squad after the match. Perhaps if their team pull off the win, the girls might benefit from the ensuing chaos in their capital and avoid punishment. It’s not so much laugh out loud at the comedy as at the daftness of the scenario. The selection of this eclectic group of illicit fans illustrates the dynamic nature of female football folowers in as just a varied and lively fashion as any combination of male fans could do, complete with colourful epithets and unseemly cigarette smoking! What’s also effective is the quality of the acting - it’s all pretty natural and judging by the way the photography followed them around, quite possibly not without a degree of improvisation either. This offers us proof that you don’t need to get all philosophical nor heavy to poke fun at a flawed principle, and I did enjoy the simplicity if this film.