Offside Movie Essay

The Game in “Offside” by Jafar Panahi Before the opening scene, there is a series of explanations that appear on the screen explaining the background, setting the viewer up for the movie. The opening scene of “Offside,” produced by Jafar Panahi, follows a father frantically trying to find his daughter who had plans to sneak into the soccer game. The camera then follows a “first-timer” who is trying to sneak in. Those around her easily spot her, but say nothing. After she refuses to be patted down resulting in her capture, almost the rest of the movie is focused on the group of girls who were caught and being held in a makeshift holding pen and the comic chaos that ensues. The movie touches on the struggles of women in Iran. The use of technical …show more content…
By using comedy, Pahini reveals the absurdity of the rules regarding sporting events. The comedy “spotlights the absurdity of Iran’s strict segregation policies toward the female sex” (Young). The restrictions on women include “smoking a cigarette, or for walking unaccompanied by a male relative-- and for attending a soccer game” (Garcia). The movie includes the girl impersonating an officer smoking a cigarette. Over and over men were telling the girls that something terrible would happen if they were caught in the arena. Panahi uses the antics of the girls and the discouraged soldiers to show how absurd the rules are. Both desire to watch and experience from the inside, but for different reasons are not able. The story is “about what happens when the women, privileged, educated city-dwellers, unexpectedly meet men from the provinces who share their passion and nationalism and, like them, are disappointed at being shut out of the stadium” (Garcia). The men who are guarding the girls don’t want to be there anymore than they girls themselves do. The guards realize that the rule is silly and they begin to sympathize with them. This again reveals “the strong underlying social theme of mistreated femmes deprived of basic rights” (Young). The only reason the guards could come up with is that the words said were not appropriate for women to hear. The ironic thing is the guards …show more content…
The girls are the offense and the guards are the defense (Garcia). The offense ends up convincing the defense to at least commentate on what is going on. During the match, the guard commentating notes that an offside has occurred, which is the title of the movie. Offside is “a penalty in soccer, one committed by an offensive player approaching the goal” (Garcia). Those not in the arena, both girls and guards, are disappointed. Likewise, the title’s subtle meaning is that the girls trying to reach the goal of equality have received a penalty for being caught and disobeying the rules. The girls are disappointed for receiving the penalty and just like the players of the match, the girls are more determined to reach their goal. The duality of the title sums up the similarities of the soccer match and the “game” the girls are playing. Just as the Iranian team wins the match, the girls also are victorious as they are allowed off of the bus transporting them to jail to celebrate amongst the