Film rating: 3/5
Walkouts: 0.001/5
Pretentious clapping at credits: 3/5
BPM sighting: No

Jafar Panahi introduced his film last night, dedicating it to his daughter who, at the age of 11, snuck into a soccer game to watch it with her pa. The girls in the movie were not so lucky. The film’s action takes place largely as dialogue amongst the girls, mad soccer fans, and the soldiers who have to stand guard over them and take them to be arrested for dressing as men to try and get into the stadium to see the Iran-Bahrain qualifier for the World Cup. I have to admit, I got a little bit bored with the limited number of sets and locations and the limited amount of action outside of these conversations. But I was the one who picked this Iranian film from the MIFF Iranian focus program, wussing out of more serious and depressing fare, instead asking for my lessons about the plight of Iranian women to be served up with comedy. So perhaps I can’t blame the film for its light-on plot, and the director may well have been limited in his locations for the film’s action by the subject matter he was shooting - women disobeying the law by trying to watch the soccer. Overall one to catch on the box when it comes to SBS, but no need to do the whole MIFF queue for it except as a show of solidarity with Iranian women and soccer fans both.