Over Thinking Cinema Presents - Football on Film: The Van (1996)

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From director Jafar Panahi, winner of the Palm d’Or at Cannes Film Festival 2025 with his newest film It Was Just an Accident, Offside (2006) explores the place of women in Iranian society.

Offside is a comedy film about a group of women attempting to defy the ban on women attending football games by disguising themselves as boys.

The film is inspired by Panahi’s own daughter who defied the ban herself.

Though this ban has been eased there are still massive restrictions upon women attending football games in Iran.

With the World Cup taking place this year in a politically fraught North America I wanted to share my favourite football films.

Football isn’t necessarily the centrepiece of each of these films but the sport touches the heart of each of them.

From Iranian women trying to break into football stadiums to watch the sport they love, to a Manc postman who starts an imaginary friendship with Eric Cantona, a couple of friends running a chip van in Dublin during the 1990 World Cup, and the story of a man and woman desperate to find each other over a summer in the small town of Kutaisi, Georgia during the 2018 World Cup. There is something for everyone.

Football does not belong to billionaires, or Gianni Infantino, or Sky Sports. It belongs to us. These films are about the humans who love football.

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