Offside is a 2006 Iranian film directed by Jafar Panahi.
A group of girls disguise themselves as boys so they can attend the 2006 World Cup qualifying match between Iran and Bahrain. They are caught by soldiers and placed in a holding pen just outside the stadium. While the soldiers wait for their chief to arrive and decide what to do with the girls, both groups remain invested in the outcome of the match.
Tropes:
- Bathroom Break-Out: One of the girls manages to escape captivity when she asks to go to the bathroom and shakes off the soldier escorting her.
- Changed My Mind, Kid: The girl who escapes the soldier escorting her to the bathroom later comes back because she doesn't want him to get into trouble with his boss.
- Nameless Narrative: None of the characters have names.
- Obsessive Sports Fan: Despite being forbidden by law to watch men's sports, the girls are obsessive enough about soccer to try to sneak in by disguising themselves as males. When they get caught and put in a pen, they even get some of the guards to watch for them and tell them what's happening. Subverted with the first girl, who doesn't actually care much about soccer but wanted to watch the match as an homage to a friend who was killed in a riot during a game between Iran and Japan
. - Sweet Polly Oliver: The girls disguise themselves as boys in order to enter a stadium to watch a soccer match, as women are forbidden from doing so. While their disguises fail, they point out that there are many more disguised women in the stadium that succeed in going unnoticed.