Offside Iran
2006, 93min.
Prod./Edit./Dir.: Jafar Panahi, Script: Jafar Panahi, Shadmehr Rastin, Dir. of Phot.: Mahmood Kalari, Compos.: Yuval Barazani, Korosh Bozorgpour, Prod. Design: Iraj Raminfar, Sound: Nezamoddin Kiaie, Sound Mix: Steven Ghouti.
Cast: Sima Mobarak Shahi (First girl), Safar Samandar (Azari Soldier), Shayesteh Irani (Smoking girl), M. Kheyrabadi (Mashadi soldier), Ida Sadeghi (Girl soccer player), Golnaz Farmani (Girl with chador), Mahnaz Zabihi (Soldier girl), Nazanin Sedighzadeh (Young girl), M. Kheymeh Kabood (Tehrani Soldier), Mohsen Tanabandeh (Ticket seller), Reza Farhadi (Old man), M. R. Gharadaghi (Boy with firecrackers).
Who is that strange boy sitting quietly in the corner of a bus full of screaming fans going to the football match? In fact, this shy boy is a girl in disguise. She is not alone, women also love football in Iran. Before the game begins, she is arrested at the check point and put into a holding pen by the stadium with a group of other women all dressed as men. They will be handed over to the vice squad after the match. But before this, they will be tortured! They must endure every cheer, every shout of a game they cannot see. Worse yet, they must listen to the play-by-play account of a soldier who knows nothing about football. Yet, these young girls just won't give up. They use every trick in the book to see the match. (From the official site)
Awards
Berlinale, 2006 (Silver Berlin Bear), Ljubljana IFF (Amnesty International Film Award).
| Panahi, Jafar  Jafar Panahi (born 11 July 1960, Mianeh, Iran)
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 modern Iranian women was named FIPRESCI’s "Film of the Year" and appeared on Top 10 lists of critics worldwide.
Panahi debuted in 1995 with The White Balloon. Before that, he had made short documentaries and short fiction films and worked as assistant director, most notably for Abbas Kiarostami in Through the Olive Trees (1993) which boosted his career. Panahi made his first feature based on a script by Kiarostami. The White Balloon received Camera d’Or at the Cannes Festival, as well as other prizes from various festivals. 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 on to win a number of best film awards and opened to excellent critical response.
Filmography
The Wounded Heads (Yarali bashlar, 1988), Kish (1991), The Friend (Doust, 1992), Akharin emtehan (1992), The White Balloon (Badkonake sefid, 1995), Ardekoul (1997), The Mirror (Ayneh, 1997), The Circle (Dayereh, 2000), Crimson Gold (Talaye sorkh, 2003), Offside (2006).
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