Director: Jafar Panahi
Year: 2006
I've got an Orchestra Baobab CD in my collection -- I believe it's "Specialist in All Styles" but don't quote me -- where I absolutely love the first song so much that I have never made it past that one to hear the others on the disc. This is literally true. Every time I put it on that first track ("Buul Ma Miin" for those that are curious) blows me away to the point where I will just listen to it over and over again for a few times. I always feel better afterwards and then move on to something else.
That's kind of how I feel about this movie--although with a 90 minute running time and a vast cinematic universe still out there waiting for me to discover--I won't be quite so obsessive. But I liked this movie so much that it truly wouldn't be hard at all. I saw it the first time a couple of weeks ago and couldn't wait to see it again. And I saw it again last night and I still can't wait to see it again.
The true star of the movie is the beautiful game--soccer. I'm a big, big fan. Having spent the last 15 years working in a sports-based profession, whatever passion I once had (and I did have a lot at one time) for other sports has pretty much been sucked out of me. But soccer never ceases to amaze, interest and educate. What I know about geo-politics, I learned from soccer. Languages, culture, same thing. And I guess the fact that this is a soccer-based movie would likely scare away many potential viewers. But it would be impossible to make this movie about any other sport. No other sport, globally, stirs up the passion that soccer does. College football fans in the South would likely argue, and I would be glad to take them on. Wars have never been fought over an Auburn-Alabama game, you know. But wars have been fought over soccer matches.The action takes place during a World Cup qualifying match at the 100,000 seat Azadi Stadium in Tehran between the hosts and Bahrain. The winner will qualify for the 2006 World Cup in Germany and nationalist fervor is running really high. The country's religious leaders have banned women from attending sporting events (lest the be exposed to strange men or--God forbid--cursing!). But several are determined to get in anyway, disguising themselves as men with varying degrees of success. The guards manage to snag a few, and keep them in a holding area in the concourse while the game takes place. Gradually the guards (who are conflicted between the fear of what will happen if they don't follow orders and the inanity of the ban) and the girls start to communicate with one another and the tension begins to dissolve. There are several funny moments and plenty of memorable characters (like the beleaguered guard from the country who just wants to get home to his cattle, the tough-talking cigarette smoking girl and the girl who wins disguises herself as a soldier in order to get in). The dialogues is snappy, fresh and real. This is just a guess (not being a Farsi speaker) but there appears to be a lot of slang thrown in, a lot of informality. And I love the way they bicker back and forth about the merits of their favorite players. It all boils down to real people on opposite sides of the fence trying to deal with a Kafka-esque situation as best as they can.
The most touching scene comes when Iran scores a goal. The guards go wild and so do the imprisoned girls. They sing and chant about the mightiness of Iran--the same Iran that is condoning a situation that is keeping them from seeing the game in the first place.
There is so much for me to love here--the spontaneity, the joy, the passion, the soccer. It's really an amazing piece of work. And in the end, I think the most intense emotion I had was envy. I'm envious of these Iranians (or Austrians, or New Zealanders or whomever) who know what it's like to be 100 percent in support of something as a nation. In the U.S., we're just too big and too splintered to ever come together on something like a big sporting event. I wonder, though, what it would be like to celebrate in Miami with the same passion as in Boston over the outcome of the game. It must feel really good to all be together, at least for a little bit.
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