TRIBUTES AND RETROSPECTIVES

Sport and cinema

Afsaid

Jafar Panahi
2006 - Iran - 1h33

Screenings : wednesday 24 - 10:30 am - Pathé - 1

In Iran, women love football too, but they are not allowed into the stadiums. Before the match begins, a young woman is arrested and handed over to the morality police. But she refuses to give up. She uses every trick in the book to see the match... despite everything.

Afsaid (Offside) was shot on 8 June 2005 during the World Cup qualifier between Iran and Bahrain. In the first sequence, the viewer gets onto the supporters' coach as they set off to watch the match, and the film ends with their reactions after the final whistle. “The film is constructed along the lines of a documentary. The location, the event and the characters are real,” said Jafar Panahi. “The unity of time gives the viewer the feeling of watching an event unfold in real time. I wanted the action to reflect the ambiguity between fiction and documentary. That's why I chose not to work with professional actors. Their presence would have introduced a feeling of something false.” “(...) The beauty of Afsaid lies in its ability to reconcile comedy and suffering, just as it manages, with rare virtuosity, to interweave very rigorous scriptwriting with a fertile and stimulating filming of reality.” (Fabien Baumann; Positif)

CAST AND CREW

Cast : Mohammad Asarian, Sima Mobarak-Shahi, Shayesteh Irani, Ayda Sadeqi
Screenplay : Jafar Panahi, Shadmehr Rastin
Cinematography : Rami Agami, Mahmoud Kalari
Sound : Nezamoddin Kiaie
Editing : Jafar Panahi
Music : Yuval Barazani, Korosh Bozorgpour

Production : Jafar Panahi Film Productions

French distributor : Tamasa Distribution