Offside (2006): A-

Director(s): Jafar Panahi. Screenplay: Jafar Panahi and Sahdmehr Rastin. Cast: Sima Mobarak Shahi, Safar Samandar, Shayesteh Irani, M. Kheyrabadi, Ida Sadeghi, Golnaz Farmani, Mahnaz Zabihi, Nazanin Sedighzadeh, M. Kheymeh Kabood, Mohsen Tanabandeh, Reza Farhadi and M.R. Gharadaghi. Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics. Runtime: 99 min. Rating: NR.

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 for exaltation and contemplation. 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. Using a slyly complex verité aesthetic, Panahi beautifully captures the discriminatory effect of Iran's society and blatantly captures high scenes of tension to natural comedy. The film commences with a man searching for his daughter (He comes back later), then marvelously switching - much like his standard narrative - to men on a bus spotting a scared woman in the corner. The film advances, and, as predicted (Spoiler alert), she gets caught. Using hand held DV camera work and partly shot live at the game, the frame gives the film its sense of realism, which effectively, not only gives the thoughts of these women, but also a “fly-on-the-wall” like observation. The girl is put in a square like barrier with others, all begging and pleading to get out. In a brilliant vignette of the film in which a girl tries to escape by going to the bathroom, Panahi again superbly captures emotion, distrust and comedy through one beautiful long shot. Such images, although easy, illusory and figurative, strike with a rare quality. So, while Offside first creates a light-hope sentiment within, a deeper, more abstract contemplation lingering in retrospect will welcome the true riches in the film, which itself is a rarity of sorts. On such a level, and even at first site, Offside is masterful.