Offside, directed by Jafar Panahi, is yet another remarkable film about the unequal treatment of women in Iran. When the film begins, a girl dressed as a boy (played by Sima Mobarak-Shahi) is on a bus that is headed for the soccer stadium where Iran will play Bahrain. The year is 2005. The winner will be entitled to play in the World Cup in Germany during 2006, so Tehran is alive with anticipation. (Some film footage is from the actual events.) When the girl arrives, she is spotted, arrested, and detained along with others who have tried to sneak in. Each girl has a different reason for wanting to witness the event, but women are not permitted to attend, primarily because men might corner them or use words that they are not supposed to hear, or so they are informed by the young military officers who are assigned to guard them. One is a tomboy (played by Shayesteh Irani), who smokes cigarettes, swears, and demonstrates her physical prowess against one of the thin guards. Another (played by Ayda Sadeqi), a member of a girls soccer team; when she needs to go to the bathroom, yet another amusing scene unfolds as she is escorted to the men's room, escapes as men pour in, yet returns out of pity for the army guy, who might be punished. The girl on the bus admits later that she is attending in honor of the Iranian soccer player who died in 2004. The interaction between the girls and guards is often amusing, but both are united in their desire for their team to prevail, and one army guy (played by Mohamad Kheirabadi) provides a play-by-play description for those who cannot look at the game, including their guards. The division between city girls and country boys provides further amusement, though one country soldier (played by Safar Samandar) wishes he were home, as his family needs him for farm work. Toward the end, a boy joins the girls; orphaned and accustomed to being arrested, he is detained for having brought fireworks. Finally, a bus arrives to drive them to police headquarters, where the Vice Squad will be required to telephone their parents to pick them up. In the jubilation of Iran’s victory, the bus is delayed in traffic, the boy hands out sprinklers, a street vendor offers free food, and the crowd insists that the army guys must join the throng in the street. The fate of the girls and the juvenile delinquent boy takes a different turn as a result. Perhaps the most fascinating element in the film is the way in which the men are protective of women, many of whom attend college and appear to need no protection. The younger generation, indeed, is accepting of women as equals with men, and even the body language of the soldiers recognizes the absurdity of their exclusion from the game. Indeed, Japanese women were allowed the previous year to attend the soccer match in the stadium, while Iranian women were kept outside. Not yet allowed for release in Iran, the Political Film Society has nominated Offside as best film exposé of 2007 and best film in the category of human rights. MH
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