Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

The innate absurdity in Iran's laws relating to the separation of the sexes is mercilessly teased apart in this gently riotous comedy: the story may be slight, but the modesty of the story (some young women attempt to gain entry to a forbidden football game) is perfect for making the point. The film intelligently puts the laws in the context of the normal uneasy fascination that exists between young people of opposing sexes in any country; and thereby makes the secondary point that the laws are not such an anachronistic tradition, but very much also a modern framework by which men can control women (and in which the young male soldiers are actually much less at ease, because of their ambiguous relationship with the law, than the female fans, who feel no respect for it whatsoever). For those of us who live in "the west", it's hard to imagine exactly what life in an Islamic state might be like: this movie, with its focus on the everyday and the universal, gives some insight. And while it's not the greatest film I've ever seen, every time it was in danger of losing my attention, something happened which made me laugh, which is what all comedies should do.

A remarkable film, Offside is basically a documentary, filmed on location prior to, during and after an actual game in Tehran. The cast are half a dozen girls who try to steal into the stadium to watch the game and the soldiers who, having caught them, must take charge of them. The acting, particularly from the men, is variable, but there is a nice variety of character in the cast of young women to whom the camera naturally gravitates.In fact, this film isn't really about the girls at all. Rather, it's about Iran and the Iranian people. It's a hugely compassionate film and Panahi's skill is in managing the sorority between the girls, the erosion of the soldiers' discipline and the city-wide joy at victory on the pitch as entirely natural, co-dependent outcomes. He also refuses to introduce a single character onto whom blame for the frankly ridiculous exclusion of women can be pinned.Panahi is not a militant, rather a sharp observer of contradictions (often coming over as humour). My favourite sequence involves a soldier agreeing to chaperone a captive girl to the men-only lavatory just before half-time. There's a sense of danger, but one cannot tell who or what is actually in danger. It's very fluid and unstable.The idea that this film and it's creator can be imprisoned (Dec 2010) by the country for which it clearly bursts with affection is preposterous. 5/10

On the face of it a film about women wanting to see a football match wouldn't appeal much to somebody with little interest in football such as myself however this isn't about football it is about discrimination and the women's enthusiasm for the sport they love.The film opens on the day of a crucial World Cup qualifying match between Iran and Bahrain, a girl is trying to get in to Tehran's Azadi Stadium by dressing like a boy, it looks like she will get in until a soldier tries to search her. Once caught she is taken to a small enclosure high up on the outside of the stadium where there are a handful of women who had already been caught, here they are guarded by a small group of conscript soldiers who's leader would rather be back home tending his livestock. We never learn the character's names but we get to know them as people as the girls plead with the guards to let them watch though a nearby gap in the wall and when refused try to get them to at least provide a commentary.As well as making an important point about the rigid gender segregation in much of present day Iran the film contains many hilarious moments such as the "disguise" one of the girls is made to wear when going to the toilet and the girl who disguised herself as a soldier and was only caught because she chose to watch the match from a seat reserved for a senior officer. The girls enthusiasm for the game is such that by the end the viewer is likely to be on the edge of their seat hoping that Iran will win and thus get to go to the finals in Germany. The soldiers aren't shown as fundamentalists, they are just conscripts who are there because they have to be and when explaining to the girls why woman can't watch men's sports don't seem that convinced by their own arguments.It is a shame that this film can't be seen in Iran itself but it is good that the wider world can see it and thus see that ordinary Iranians aren't a bunch of fanatics desperate to wage war on the west but normal people with the same passions and concerns as people everywhere. The cast did a great job in making their characters seem like real people rather than mere caricatures.

The US State Dept. would not like us to see this movie, because they have a beef with the Iranian govt. However, it shows us just how civilized Iran really is, despite the content of the film, which centers on the struggle of women there for equal rights in the simplest of terms: the ability to watch a soccer game at the stadium, which is strictly limited to male audiences alone. The film is hilariously funny, and in and of itself is proof of freedom of speech and expression in Iran. I enjoyed this movie intensely. Five girls try to penetrate the police border at the ticket gates to a soccer match between Iran and Bahrain. The ensuing comedy is too funny to describe, from the bus trip to the stadium, to the interceding of the police and subsequent detention of the girls, to the resulting end. Don't miss this classic film. It's a MUST see. One of the best foreign films I've seen in years.