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Offside
Sony Pictures Classics


8.6

based on 25 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 16 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG for language throughout, and some thematic elements

Starring Sima Mobarak-Shahi, Shayesteh Irani, Ayda Sadeqi, Golnaz Farmani, Mahnaz Zabihi, Nazanin Sediq-zadeh, Melika Shafahi, and Safdar Samandar

Offside is a smart comedy illustrating the fight for women's rights in Iran. (Sony Pictures Classics)

GENRE(S):	Comedy \| Drama \| Foreign
WRITTEN BY:	Jafar Panahi Shadmehr Rastin
DIRECTED BY:	Jafar Panahi
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: August 28, 2007 Theatrical: March 23, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	93 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	Iran
LANGUAGE(S):	Persian (with English subtitles)

Silver Berlin Bear, 2006 Berlin International Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Jafar Panahi of Iran is one of his country's great filmmakers, and Offside is his best movie to date.

100

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

So accessible and entertaining.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

It's a sports film unlike any other, and a political film that makes the personal profound.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Jafar Panahi's wonderfully funny, outspoken shaggy-dog story, a light counterweight to his sadder 2000 feminist drama "The Circle."

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

The interaction between soldiers and captives becomes a microcosm for an entire culture. It's a wisp of a movie but it has stayed with me longer than much supposedly weightier fare.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Offside is blatantly metaphoric and powerfully concrete, deceptively simple and highly sophisticated in its formal intelligence.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

This is Iranian cinema at its most accessible: a bit slow even in its 92 minutes, with more environment than story, but deeply immersive and thought-provoking, and quite often funny.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Exhilarating, exuberant and drolly funny.

Boston Globe Janice Page

As funny as it is sharp.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

In the midst of his many other achievements here -- his documentary realism, his wry humanism, his allegorical subtlety -- Panahi even manages to redeem the good name of toilet humour.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Director Jafar Panahi has long been an eloquent and passionate representative for Iranian women. But judging by this deeply poignant comedy, they may not need a mouthpiece much longer.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Poignant and sometimes downright hilarious, much of the film unfolds in the small area outside the arena -- an "offside" penalty box for women who just won't behave.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

The masterly Panahi concocts a spellbinding, often corrosively and/or warmly funny story in which love of both country and sport tries to, but doesn't quite, transcend dogmatic and ingrained difference.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

There is more comedy than outrage in this critique of sexual inequality in Iran.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Within this simple structure, Panahi manages at once to celebrate and critique his nation's passions, sexual politics, sporting heritage, laws, morality and class system. It's a fictional feature but, like many Iranian films, it feels uncannily real, particularly in its final rousing minutes.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Along with such colleagues as Abbas Kiarostami and Moshen Makhmalbaf, Panahi has perfected the art of realist filmmaking,

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Women's roles and the eternal fight to expand their rights in Iranian society get a light, hugely entertaining treatment in Jafar Panahi's Offsides.

Variety Deborah Young

In his most accessible and spontaneous picture, ranking Iranian helmer Jafar Panahi reveals unsuspected comic gifts barely visible in his dramatic festival winners "The White Balloon," "The Circle" and "Crimson Gold."

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

A charming, character-driven film that conveys enormous feeling for its people

The New York Times A.O. Scott

While the gist of Offside is the same (as "The Circle"), its tone is more insouciant, as it celebrates the guile and toughness of its heroines while casting a sympathetic glance at the ethical quandaries facing their jailers.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

As the political rhetoric between Washington and Tehran becomes dangerously overheated, Offside offers an intimate antidote: an affectionate glimpse into the cultural schisms that young Tehranis face every day. Western audiences will cheer the rebellious girls on.

San Francisco Chronicle G. Allen Johnson

Although its message is deadly serious, is is filled with wit and winning characters.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

The story is good-natured, but Panahi's message is serious: That ludicrous rules turn Iranian women into third-class citizens. And what better way is there to get that point across than through sports and laughter?

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The delicately subversive Mr. Panahi makes his subjects perfectly clear -- the stupidity of authority, and the hypocrisy of discrimination. Offside is surprisingly entertaining, and edifying to boot.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

There's a commitment to half-improvised, ground-level realism that lends the picture news value and an obvious urgency.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 16 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Paul D. gave it a9:
I was amazed at how such a simple story could be so absorbing, entertaining and humorous. Excellent look at the interplay between the stringent Iranian laws regarding women and human factors, including the personalities of the police and the young women.

Troubadorjim gave it a7:
Sure, it wasn't action packed, and the dialog wasn't anything to get excited about , but it definitely hit an emotional chord and made me feel the oppression of Persian women. Offside was a kind of sneak peak into Iran's regime, introducing you to the country's friendly people who, at the end of the day, just want to watch some soccer. I especailly like how Panahi portrayed the male soccer fans as simpathetic to the oppressed females, helping them every chance they got. Not a perfect 10 in my eyes, but definitely worth your time if you're a footie fan or just interested in foreign cinema.

BK gave it a6:
This movie was boring as hell. I've been to Iran many times and I still didn't enjoy it very much even though I managed to watch the whole thing. I got absolutely nothing out of it which is a shame cause I was sort of interested in the topic. Slow, plodding scenes, and ultimately uneventful plot makes NOT recommend this movie at all.

Sean C. gave it a10:
Iranian Islamic regime and other world’s patriarchal societies from Saudi to Afghanistan are placed on notice by this unannounced, unpretentious and unofficial Middle Eastern Women feminist gesture encapsulated in this heartbreaking movie. The film despite its obvious comical propensity, flows through with a deafening tone of casual and yet ominous oppression. In a number of scenes, the movie evokes a helpless feeling mixed with a type of anxiety that one may feel watching Spielberg’s little girl in the red dress running among the ruins at the height of Gestapo’s cleansing in Schindler’s list. Yet the brilliance of these resilient and fearless Iranian women acting as the quintessential unsung heroes escalates into a sensational redeeming factor for their peers and the women from around the world. My compliments to the Mr. Panahi for providing a glimpse of Iranian women reality to the rest of world while in a way bestowing the imaginary title of 21st century Jean dArc’s on these lion heart brave and unstoppable women of Iran.

Andres Z. gave it an8:
An easy stand-out at this past year's New York Film Festival, Jafar Panahi's Offside is simple yet tough, a film who’s unlikely reflexivity is both a reason to praise it and think about. Carefully accumulating and juxtaposing details to form a web of metaphors and meanings, the film chronicles a group of young women who, not allowed to enter sports events due to Iranian law, disguise themselves as boys in order to enter Tehran's Azadi Stadium to watch a World Cup qualifying match.

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Offside Sony Pictures Classics

Offside
Sony Pictures Classics