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“Excellent and extremely topical,” wrote Philip French in The Observer , which selected the irresistible OFFSIDE as its “film of the week.” One of the most acclaimed of the (many) superlative Iranian directors whose films regularly make the rounds on the festival circuit, Jafar Panahi is a familiar name to cinephiles and devotees of world cinema, though his latest is somewhat of a departure. Shrewdly shot in Tehran during a real soccer game (the qualifying match between Iran and Bahrain in last year's World Cup), OFFSIDE tells the story of some die-hard fans with a big problem; as women, they are unable to enter the stadium due to strict laws governing the mingling of the sexes, but, undaunted, many brave the gender divide and sneak in, only to be caught and detained. Corralled into a holding area cruelly within earshot (but out of sight) of the game, the women desperately try to negotiate their release - or at the very least a glimpse of the action - with the young soldiers minding them. “Likeable, gentle and charming. . . . This is one of those very rare films that, with no very obvious and coercive narrative structure, simply goes with its own self-created flow” (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian ).
PG
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