A Call For Fairness: Jafar Panahi’s Offside (by Alli)

Alli has been reading my site since almost the very beginning, eight years ago, and this is her entry in the Iranian Film Blogathon. When I put up a post about the letter Jafar Panahi got out to the Berlinale, she left a comment about how it was a total “gut check” for her, and I asked her if she would like to write something. She watched Jafar Panahi’s Offside and wrote this piece up. I was deeply moved by it, and also moved by her willingness to take this on, to add her voice to the others here. My deepest thanks. I love this movie so much, too.

When Sheila first wrote about Offside and Jafar Panahi’s imprisonment, I fell in love with both the theme behind the movie she described and the man who could tackle heavy subjects with joy and humor.

Offside is so engrossing and lovely that I didn’t have a moment to wonder about the man behind it, until it was over. Now, he’s all I can think about. To have his voice silenced just as I discovered it is sad. To know that he is dreaming without a way to share those ideas when I can walk down to the store and film whatever comes into my head makes me feel obligated to keep talking, writing and thinking about someone who is a thousand times the storyteller I will ever be. Please, even as we go on to talk about lighter things, keep Jafar Panahi in your thoughts too. Keep talking about him. Injustice thrives in the darkness.

Offside is, on the surface, a joyful movie about the excitement of sport and competition. Beneath that, though, is a shout for fairness, reasonable treatment of others, and the small things we can all do to help each other. For all the things we emphasize to mark our differences people are remarkably similar regardless of where they come from. People everywhere love, laugh, cry, play and tell stories. People everywhere long to be included and appreciated. Whether you’re in Tehran or Chicago, Paris or Beijing, people cheer, sing and get excited about sport. Put the movie on mute in the beginning and you’d swear it was the “el” in Chicago during the “City Classic” Cubs/Sox games, right down to the scuffle between opposing fans, apologies and general excitement.

While I loved many of the characters (even the grumpy commander of the band of soldiers felt real), the thing that sticks with me a day after watching this movie is that drive for fairness. Yes, the world is unfair, but everywhere you go people wish it weren’t.

There’s a moment when one of the girls has been escorted to the bathroom by a guard. The only bathroom in the stadium is a men’s, so the guard kicks everyone he can out and lets the girl go in by herself. A crowd of boys come in to beat the half-time rush and the guard talks them out of it after they find out a girl is in there. They leave. A few minutes pass and the crowd of boys is back and even bigger.

They engage the guard and keep him busy and let her get past into the stadium. It’s not much, but it’s enough. She gets away from the guard and gets to hang out in the stadium for a while. One of the crowd, worth getting arrested for.

It’s a beautiful movie about people, a true reminder that goodness is everywhere if you’re willing to look for it. If you haven’t seen Offside, I really hope you change that status. And if you have, I’d love to know what stuck with you!

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10 Responses to A Call For Fairness: Jafar Panahi’s Offside (by Alli)

  1. alli says:

    I think this is my first foreign (at least non-British or American) film. I loved every second of it. Can’t wait to get more recommendations as the blog-a-thon goes along.

    Thanks again, Sheila for letting me in and encouraging me to see something new.

  2. sheila says:

    Alli – Thank you for clarifying – I wasn’t sure!

    I am so glad you took this on. I loved to hear your impressions. I think one of my favorite moments in Offside is when the boys in the bathroom sort of nudge aside to let her pass and go free. It is still moving to me when I see it now.

    Thanks again!!

  3. Jake Cole says:

    I’m so pleased you decided to write in, Alli. I vividly remember my first Iranian film, Taste of Cherry. It completely changed me, opened up my worldview and made me hungry for more. It’s funny ’cause, since then, Taste of Cherry has become by some measure my least favorite Abbas Kiarostami film that I’ve seen, though I’ve only seen films past his 1987 Where is the Friend’s House? (and pretty much every film he’s made since then, including ToC, could be argued to be a masterpiece).

    Panahi treads similar waters as Kiarostami, though they diverge in how openly Panahi deals with politics. Yet, as you say, he always finds the humor and the humanity. Offside, to me, is one of the best “stand-up-and-cheer” movies I’ve ever seen, and I think it makes for a good double-bill with Ousmane Sembene’s Moolaadé, which is about the dire situation of female circumcision but contains a heap of humor and earns its direct but evocative payoff.

    It’s damn hard to nail down how Panahi and Kiarostami operate, because they can be so forthright yet so abstract and suggestive. That’s why I love to hear newcomers to their films: you get less of people like me who continue to wrack their brains shouting “How do they DO this?!” and more of the emotional reaction to seeing this sort of thing for the first time. Sometimes, it’s all you can do to nail down a feeling with these movies, because you can feel so many things at once while watching them.

    Again, I’m super-pleased you sent this in Alli, and I hope you find some more titles that interest you this week. When Sheila announced this blogathon, I knew I wanted to hear newcomers’ voices most of all, and I think the event is already a success.

  4. sheila says:

    I’ve seen Offside on the big screen a couple of times, and people inevitably start to cheer during that long one-take section at the end when they’re all in the Vice Squad van listening to the game on the radio. You don’t even need to see the game. It’s in their faces. It’s so damn moving.

    Often, because of censorship issues, Iranian films take the roundabout route to make their points – which can often lead them into those abstract waters. But Offside is totally on-the-nose. Straight-up girl-power and a fight for dignity and – not even dignity – but just inclusion.

    It’s really fun seeing it with a big crowd – I’m going again to see it this week at the Asia Society – and it’s always fun seeing it with an audience. It’s hilarious, something that you often don’t feel as acutely when you are watching it alone.

    Thanks, Jake, for the nice comment – I’m so glad Alli contributed as well.

  5. Kent says:

    Thank you, Alli!

  6. Sophie says:

    (Leaving the land of lurkdom…)

    I saw Offside perhaps a year ago. I never thought of myself as a sports-film kind of gal, but that became totally irrelevant with this film, because as has been mentioned, this film is so beyond being a movie about a soccer game.

    I don’t remember everything clearly, but I do remember being astounded at how many girls and young women were risking so much in order to see this match. And the small things (turning the other cheek, moments of eye contact) meant that everyone any of these girls encountered became an accomplice, and aide, and another person fighting for equality.

    I didn’t know much about the man behind it until the beginning of this blogathon, but I am heartbroken, though not surprised, that he is in prison. The persecution (religious, political, etc.) in Iran seems to be coming from a deep fear of losing control. The young people who have grown up under this regime are starting to rumble, and we have already seen some outbursts, recently. Hopeful, then, if not for the fate of all the unjustly imprisoned, then at least for the public of Iran.

  7. sheila says:

    Sophie – thank you so much for commenting. I love it when people “de-lurk”.

    I love what you say about how these girls, along with persecution, find unlikely allies in soooo many of the guys they encounter. One of my favorite moments in the movie is early on, on the shuttle bus – full of boys – and there’s one girl, dressed up as a boy sitting on the bus. One of the boys nudges his friend and says, “Check it out. That’s a girl.” His friend looks, and then says to his friend, “So? Don’t mess it up for her. Let her have her chance.”

    Beautiful.

    And how the head soldier starts out furious – not only that he is far away from his family on duty, but that he is in charge of rallying up these crazy tomboys. he’s also pissed because HE wants to see the game, too. And then, of course, he’s the one who fiddles with the antenna in the Vice Squad bus so they all can listen to the game.

    Obviously women are often at the forefront of political struggle and oppression in Middle Eastern countries – but the entire population is oppressed. Also: when women are oppressed, EVERYONE suffers. That was one of the points I made in my original review of Offside. When you dehumanize females, and point up their sexuality to such a degree that they must be shielded from everything – then you cut yourself off from so much else. Husbands/brothers/fathers … all of them suffer because their loved ones are oppressed. I know there are evil husbands/brothers/fathers – but that’s not true across the board. Jafar Panahi’s daughter was not allowed to go into the soccer game. That was his inspiration for making Offside. He thought it was RIDICULOUS, more than anything else: a 10 year old girl can’t see a soccer game? This is RIDICULOUS.

  8. sheila says:

    And yes: the rumbles are starting up in Iran yet again. The oppression from 2009 couldn’t last – it was too harsh. And that was a reaction against the crackdown in 2003. It can’t last. It just can’t. These are self-reliant politically active people. I wish them the absolute best.

  9. alli says:

    During the most recent rumbles all I could think about is the American Revolution, people following along at home had to wait MONTHS for the kind of news we were able to get and see in seconds. I almost resented the technology, because I wanted time to process it and let it fester so that maybe we could do something helpful. I just wish I knew what to DO, other than talk, think and pray for the people.

    Also, as a die-hard sports fan, I was just so repelled by the idea of being told I could never go into Wrigley as myself again. And that even going in disguised could be dangerous? Unthinkable and scary. Those girls are exactly like my circle of friends. I’ve never considered myself much of a feminist… but man. That was a strange surge of “God, there’s gotta be something I can do”. From a movie! I can’t remember ever having such a visceral response to film before. Books? Sure.

  10. sheila says:

    Alli – it is outrageous to think of not being allowed to go to a game. When it comes to such issues, feminism becomes humanism.

    And I agree: in our fast-paced world it is difficult to process events. There is a beauty in it – the mullahs/regimes/dictators shut down the damn Internet – but STILL these wily technologically savvy people get the word out. It’s awe-inspiring, and yes, a bit scary.

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