There’s nothing that says soccer movies have to be about just soccer. Want proof? Get thee to a copy of this delightful British coming-of-age comedy. Set in London (the film manages to show off the capital’s diversity, an all-too-rare achievement), Bend It like Beckham tells the story of Jesminder Bjamra (Parminder Nagra), Jess to her friends, who comes from a traditional Indian family but is soccer-obsessed. Ignoring her mother’s complaints that the sport consists simply of “displaying your bare legs to complete strangers,” Jess gets recruited to play for a team by Juliette (Keira Knightley), who is having mother issues of her own (“There’s a reason Sporty Spice doesn’t have a boyfriend”). Before long, they’re not competing just for the ball but also for the attention of their coach, Joe (Jonathan Rhys Meyers).
An Iranian movie about female soccer fans? And a comedy, to boot? It may sound unlikely, but director Jafar Panahi pulls off a smart and savvy look at the roles of soccer and women in Iranian society. His six fearless females try to defy the country’s all-male rule and sneak into Iran’s crucial 2006 World Cup qualification match against Bahrain (Panahi somehow managed to film at the game in question). Many of the sequences are inspired, especially when you bear in mind that the cast was composed of amateurs. And while we don’t actually ever see a ball being kicked, Offside still manages to achieve its goals: it won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival — Berlin being, ironically, the city that played host to the 2006 World Cup final.
