Offside(Afsaid)

Shifting from The Circle’s gritty, realist tale to a bracing comedy in no way means Panahi agrees to compromise and gives up his taboo theme about the oppression and inequality suffered by Iranian women. Filmed at the actual Iran vs Bahrain qualifying match for the 2006 World Cup, the story focuses on young women football fanatics, disguised as boys, doing their darnedest to defy the all-male rule and get into the stadium. With all its soft-centred sentimentality and dark humour, this seemingly gentle and charming film is acutely sensitive to the tensions simmering in a biased society, and scathing to the law and order that looks all the more absurd in a globalised world.

Berlin International Film Festival: Silver Bear Jury Grand Prix