I saw this movie at an event of the City Library of my city. Watching this, I felt a kind of déjà vu, and said to myself "Oh, I saw a movie of similar atmosphere. It was The Circle". Yes, these are by the same director, Jafar Panahi. Like Offside, The Circle also portrays the female discrimination under religious background, with no specific lead character, and I felt a kind of awkwardness. But this awkwardness has made the movie attractive. By showing a group of women who had no relationship so far, instead of clear plot with a clear protagonist, it has successfully portrayed the situation of Iranian women. By the way, in the beginning of the movie, there was a message saying "this movie was shot during the World Cup qualifying match between Iran and Bahrain in 2005", I thought it was a documentary film, but actually it was a drama. Then, was there a "true" fenced area in the stadium to keep women who attempted to enter? If it was shot in a real match, they did not know the result of the match. Is such a drama possible? If ever Iran lost the match, wasn't there the last scene of applause and cheers in the bus and the city? At IMDb, I learned that it was guerrilla filmmaking, and the movie can't be screened in Iran. Maybe that is why the movie has strong power.
