Offside

Director

Jafar Panahi

Tagline

A film by Jafar Panahi

Synopsis

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 just by the stadium with a band of other women all dressed up 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. A smart comedy illustrating the fight for women’s rights in Iran.