Fans. Qualifying match of the world championship 2006 Iran — Bahrain. "Offside" tells the story of several Iranian fans who try to sneak into the stadium to watch the match. In Iran, women are not allowed to enter stadiums with men to watch sports. On the one hand, Offside is a comedy, and on the other, it is a brilliant commentary on society, in this case, Iranian society. And it is a worthy continuation of "The Circle" (2000). With this work, Panahi regains his confident step from some of the blunders in Crimson Gold (2003) and here his talent is revealed to the fullest. Based on the principles of neorealism, he has established himself as an outstanding practitioner.
At the beginning of the film, a girl dressed as a boy tries to slip past security guards and get into the stadium. She was soon apprehended and sent outside the stadium where other girls were gathered in similar circumstances. There are six football fans in a short time. They are guarded by three young soldiers performing their national duty. Since two soldiers, Mashhad and Tabriz, are from the province, and the girls are from advanced Tehran, we see a certain amount of social play. The game is soon developing between girls and men. Interestingly, these city girls are not only more circumspect than their escorts, they also seem to know more about football. "Why was football games banned for girls?" asks one security fan. He answers, as if saying from a formula that it is to protect women from the foul language of uncouth men. But when the Japanese team came to play in Iran, Japanese women were allowed into the stadium. The back-and-forth argument has been going on for a while in the same vein and it becomes clear that these young people don't really know much about this ban. As in Panahi’s earlier films, soldiers rely on the law, they just try to do their job according to the rules of this system, which itself is dormant. In an interview after Offside, Panahi noted that religious authorities now claim there is another reason to close the stadium to women. This is to protect them from watching men's bare hands and feet. What are the real reasons for these restrictions? We can all come up with our own answers, but of course, Panahi sees the social problem here deeper than just the question of watching sporting events.
Offside shares some of the characteristics with Panahi’s previous films, The White Ball, The Mirror, The Circle and Crimson Gold, as well as the subsequent Taxi. Again, his film takes place mostly on the street, sometimes on a bus, for one day and more or less in real time. Again, his actors are unprofessional. Again, women or girls are the main characters. Again, the main characters struggle with common social constraints. Like most of Panahi’s films, Offside was banned in Iran. The story takes the form of a documentary. Most of it was filmed at the stadium during the actual match. Using a compact digital camera for the first time, Panahi and his team were able to fit in the crowd discreetly and capture the spontaneity of the real situation. Thanks to Panaha’s skill in compiling editable shots on the fly as the situation develops, the visual continuity of the tape is surprising and organically believable, with a point-of-view frame emerging naturally in the stream of images. The importance of this technical skill cannot be overstated. By adapting his film to the way its untrained actors work in crowded street situations, Panahi is able to maintain its compelling narrative while maintaining a sense of spontaneity and authenticity.
The director has an exquisite set of aesthetic preferences that define his filmmaking style. He prefers the sequence of events in his films to be presented more or less in real time to capture the narrative immediacy of reality. Although Offside looks like it was shot in one day, it actually took 39 days to produce. The mastery of camera and editing is so seductive that we feel like we are participating in a real-time documentary event. Panahi does not like the artificiality that some Iranian filmmakers have when they shoot women in interiors. Filmmakers are forced to show women wearing veils in their homes, even in the company of their immediate family members. Panahi argues that it is fake and not common practice, even among conservative families. This is one of the reasons why Panahi prefers to make his films on the streets. While the film has its humorous moments, it’s useful to remember that football is a sport with potentially serious political overtones in Iran. The Iranian authorities are making every effort to maintain strict control and impose strict restrictions on the freedom of assembly of individuals. This prevents potentially uncontrolled charges from occurring. The concept of a flash mob is something new for Iran and a phenomenon that could create difficulties for the system in the future. Currently, however, there is one flash mob that happens spontaneously. When Iran wins a football game, the streets are filled with people and the holiday begins. And there is nothing that can stop it. It is this phenomenon at the end of the film, after Iran beat Bahrain and earned a ticket to Germany, that Jafar Panahi captures on film and celebrates. This is a spontaneous eruption of Iranians celebrating something of their own, a victory for their native football team. In “Offside” this holiday is interrupted by a police bus, which takes fans to the police station Vice.
By telling and revealing the truth of life, the irreconcilable Panahi becomes a leading voice not only in Iranian cinema, but in the world’s ongoing cultural dialogue. Perhaps someday in the future, with the continued efforts of people like Jafar Panahi, Iranians will be able to celebrate freely, with a sweep, other homegrown elements of their unique culture.