Screen/Society--Modern Cinemas of the Middle East--"Offside"

Tuesday, February 1, 2011 - 3:00pm to 5:00pm
Screen/Society--Modern Cinemas of the Middle East--"Offside"

Offside
(Jafar Panahi, 2006, 93 min, Iran, Persian w/ English Subtitles, Color, 35mm)

Offside puts most of the action at a large soccer stadium in Tehran, where a group of young women, banned from the game on the sole basis of their sex, have been captured by stadium guards after sneaking inside. Not only are they in a kind of holding pen awaiting arrest, the girls can't even glimpse the World Cup qualifying match between Iran and Bahrain, although they can hear the sounds of the crowd. At every turn Panahi illuminates some subtle point about the limits put on women, yet the film is full of humor. The viewer is left not with a political tract but with rich human comedy, and with the idea that the spectacle of a white ball pushed across a green field might bring people together in a way that transcends sex, class, or the oppressive rules of a regime.

Cost: Free and Open to the Public

Sponsors: Duke Islamic Studies Center (DISC), Program in the Arts of the Moving Image (AMI), Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies, Duke University Middle East Studies Center (DUMESC), Franklin Humanities Institute, Graduate Student Association of Iranians at Duke

Bryan Center Griffith Film Theater