"Offside" *** (out of ****)When I first started this blog, one of my goals was to write about films from other countries. I didn't want this blog to be only about American mainstream films. I wanted to go beyond that. To a small extent I have kept true to my promise. I have already written about Hungarian, Romanian, German, French, Italian and Chinese films. But, I have not written about anything from the Middle East.
In fairness I should point out my knowledge of cinema from this region is not very strong. I have seen a few Iranian films, some of which I have enjoyed greatly. My favorite director may be Abbas Kiarostami ("The Wind Will Carry Us", "Ten"). It is debatable, but, he may have the greatest crossover success compared to his fellow filmmakers. There are of course the films of Majid Majidi ("Baran", "Children of Heaven") whose work has also enjoyed critical success in America.
"Offside" is the work of Jafar Panahi. I have not seen his other films but going over his credits I am familiar with every one of them. I remember when each of them was originally released. His work includes "Crimon Gold", "The Circle", "The Mirror" and "The White Balloon". "Offside" is his most recent film.
When Americans or other Westerns look at works from the Middle East and Iran in particular, I think there is a tendency to read into these films a bit. I think we look at these movies to help us see the way life really is in this part of the world. While, I agree, cinema has the power to do that, to show us worlds and people we may normally not be exposed to, I sometimes feel one can over-do it. Sometimes a film has no greater message than to entertain. This could lead to a culture clash. American simply won't be able to relate to what the film is trying to do. I find I have this problem mostly with international comedies.
"Offside", a half comedy, half social commentary, doesn't suffer from this problem in great detail. It does however take on a subject nearly every film I have seen from Iran deal with. Women in society and their place in the world. The best film I have seen which dealt with this is Kiarostami's "Ten". "Offside" uses more humor to get its point across and because it doesn't feel like a lecture, not the "Ten" does, I think it has a pretty good chance of reaching a larger Western audience.
The film takes place in 2005. Iran's soccer team may qualify for the World Cup if they can beat Bahrain. In Iran women are not allowed to attend sporting events. You see, at games men may become so involved in the game that they may start to curse and swear and such language should not be heard by ladies.
Still some young girls resent this fact and want to watch their fellow countrymen play, especially the young girls who are soccer fans. So a small group decide to dress up like boys and try to sneak into the stadium.
As "Offside" starts off an elderly man (Reza Farhadi) is looking for his daughter, who he has found out is trying to sneak into the stadium. If she is caught, it is unclear what may happen. The man fears the men may kill her.
This is followed by a young girl (Sima Mobarack Shahi) sitting on a bus headed for the game. It is logical to assume this girl is the one the man was looking for. And so we think the film will be about her attempts to see the game. But like an Antonioni film, as we start off watching one character only to find the story was really about another.
The girl is caught by security and placed with other girls who have all tried to sneak in. They must wait until the game is over to be taken by the vice squad, where their families will be called to pick up the girls.
"Offside" as I said handles much of this with humor. It becomes a sort of battle of the sexes film. The young girls do not understand why they are unable to watch the game live. At one moment one of the girls sits down with one of the guards. She asks him, why are they unable to. He really doesn't have an answer for her, other than men and woman cannot sit together. But the young girl responds back with, what about going to the movies? It is perfectly legal for men and women to sit together in a theatre.
This I think is an example of a society which follows rules it doesn't understand. It is not just Iran but people of all countries. We just accept certain rules and never really question why it is we follow them. If we ask questions we are mocked. We are simply told things are the way they are because that is the way it is. Try explaining that to a five year old.
There were a few things which really impressed me or stood out about "Offside". The first was the structure of the film. How we follow one character simply to "lose" to a host of other characters. The second was that for a film about a sporting event, we never actually see the game. The game is kept off-screen. We hear the crowd in the stadium, we will hear it on the radio or even one of the guards describing the game to the girls but we never see the game take place. And third, as I have already said, the way Panahi combines a sports movie with a social commentary and does it all with humor.
While at first there is resistance between the guards and the women, by the end of the film, I think the message is one of harmony. We can all get along and celebrate because we are all one, or in this film's case, we are all Iranians. In a small way it also shows the power of sports. Sports have a way of uniting people. Everyone sits in a stadium, equally cheering the same team. Everyone pulls together. Now, if only it was that way in life all the time.
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