OFFSIDE

Origin Country: Iran
Runtime: 88 MIN
Presentation Format: 35 MM

DIR Jafar Panahi SCR Shadmehr Rastin, Jafar Panahi PROD Khiyabaneh Vali Assr., Khiyabane Fereshteh, Khiyabaneh Vali Assr. DP Mahmood Kalari ED Jafar Panahi PROD DES Iraj Raminfar CAST Sima Mobarak Shahi, Safar Samandar, Shayesteh Irani, M. Kheyrabadi, Ida Sadeghi

Short Note:
Six Iranian girls disguise themselves as boys to enter Tehran's Azadi Stadium and watchthe 2006 World Cup Asian zone qualifier between Iran and Bahrain. However, their presence is discovered and they are arrested one by one.

Long Note:
Modern life and cultural prohibitions bump up against each other in this gentle comedy. Eschewing any rigid narrative structure, the film is a free-flowing, whimsical look at women (and men) in 21st century Iran.

Iran's World Cup-qualifying soccer match looms as a frantic father searches for hisdaughter. Although Iranian law declares soccer attendance "male only," he fears she may try to sneak into Tehran stadium. He is right. She, and a half-dozen other young women, disguised as boys in baggy clothes and baseball caps, are caught and held in anenclosed area. As the crowd roars nearby, the young women match wits with their reluctant solider captors.

Director Jafar Panahi avoids overt political statements, relying simply on characters to explore larger issues. In one supremely ironic moment, a soldier asks the captive women why they are making his life so difficult. This droll sensibility infuses OFFSIDE.
-P.E. Thomas

Biography:
The cinema of Jafar Panahi is often described as Iranian neo-realism. Regardless of how one chooses to categorize his powerful work, the unprecedented humanitarianism of Panahi's films cannot be denied. Panahi's cinema is urban, contemporary and rich with the details of human existence. Panahi's THE CIRCLE won the Golden Lion at the 2000 Venice Film Festival. The unsettling drama about the social dilemma of several modernIranian women was named FIPRESCI's "Film of the Year" and appeared on Top 10 listsof critics worldwide. Panahi debuted with 1995's THE WHITE BALLOON, Camera d'Or winner at the Cannes Festival. The story of a young girl's adventures as she seeks to buy a lucky goldfish for New Year, THE WHITE BALLOON marked the emergence of a new cinema talent. Panahi's 1997 film, THE MIRROR, received the Locarno Festival's Golden Leopard, and confirmed the young director's promise. CRIMSON GOLD was selected in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2003 where it won the Jury Prize. It went onto win a number of best film awards and opened to excellent critical response.