re:mote voices

Title: Offside
Cast:Sima Mobarak-Shahi, Shayesteh Irani, Ayda Sadeqi, Golnaz Farmani, Mahnaz Zabihi, Nazanin Sediq-zadeh, Melika Shafahi, Safdar Samandar, Mohammad Kheir-abadi, Masoud Kheymeh-kabood
Director:Jafar Panahi

In Iran women are not allowed to attend football games. An arena full of men cursing and swearing is deemed to be an inappropriate place for women to be. And given that they can get away with it men luxuriate in the ability to behave riotously, to shout, to tell racy jokes. But some women are still determined to get in and see football matches for themselves. Though if they are caught they will be arrested.

Offside is the story of a group of women who try to get into the match between Iran and Bahrain, a qualifying match for the 2006 World Cup. The film starts with a man stopping a bus, he has heard his daughter has gone to the game and he is determined to stop her from disgracing the family. That bus passes another bus, on which a young man observes another young football fan. Hey, he says to his friend, that’s a girl, his friend says of course it is, and he should ignore her if he doesn’t want to ruin her plan. To the friend it is obvious that this is the first time this girl has tried to get into a game, she is behaving all wrong. He points out the first bus, two people hang out the back window waving flags, those are girls also he says.

The girl arrives at the match and is nervous. She makes an attempt to get in, but as the guy pointed out, this is her first time, and she really doesn’t know how to go about getting in. With the realisation that the army are searching people as they go in to the ground she panics, if they search her they will know she is a girl. But in the process she gives herself away by trying to get out of being searched, so she is dragged round to a fenced off area along the wall of the stadium. There she will be detained with other girls until the police arrive to take them away.

The remainder of the film we watch the group of girls detained here as they agonise over being able to hear the game but not see the game. They make attempts to get away, they argue with the soldiers guarding them, they discuss their love of football. As the film progresses we go through the passion for the game. The arguments for why Iran’s practice of banning women is silly, the most telling example being how Japanese women were allowed in when Japan played Iran, but that was okay because they don’t understand the language. The lead soldier despairs, what did he do to deserve this – only a few months of service left, and he should have been on leave instead of here. The film is downbeat and gentle and infectious. By turns amusing and touching, as the film reaches its conclusion I couldn’t help but be affected by the enthusiasm and emotion involved. A wonderfully surprising piece.