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Dressed in wide trousers, a plain black T-shirt and an inconspicuous shirt, a small group of men walk towards the Azadi Stadium in Tehran. It’s match day and thousands of fans flock towards the sports complex to cheer on Persepolis FC in one of the most important matches of the year. The atmosphere is exuberant and a little heated – there is a certain nervousness in the air. This also applies to the person with the simple, baggy clothes and the moustache, even if the reasons are different. On closer inspection, it quickly becomes apparent that the beard is fake, the clothes look like a costume and the face painting only serves as a distraction.

The 27-year-old Zahra is a passionate football fan and loves to go to the stadium – as an Iranian woman, however, she is not allowed to do so, which is why women keep sneaking into Iranian stadiums disguised as men. Zahra gains viral notoriety through her actions and has many followers. The documentation The Football Aficionado follows the young Iranian woman in her everyday life and her newfound fame, portrays life as a woman in Iran, the resistance but also the support she experiences and thus paints an impressive picture of the fight for equality and self-determination.

Football is for (almost) everyone

The hostile and unjust situation of discrimination and constitutional oppression in which Iranian women have found themselves since the 1979 Islamic Revolution is well known. Especially since the protests against the regime, which have intensified in 2022, the topic of oppression and inequality has increasingly come to the fore again. The difficult conditions in Iran have also often been dealt with and critically questioned in cinematic terms. Award-winning films, such as the comic adaptation, took care of that Persepolis from 2007, in which the author Marjane Satrapi describes life as a girl and woman in the proclaimed Islamic Republic or the film Offside from 2006 for a cinematic attention control of the topic. Especially the latter film seems like a feature film version of The Football Aficionado. The protagonists here are numerous women disguised as men who sneak into the stadium during a crucial qualifying match played by the Iranian national team for the 2006 World Cup.

The documentation follows against this entire background of oppression, violence and gender inequality The Football Aficionado about 90 minutes to Zahra’s everyday life. She is extremely active on Instagram and other social networks and shared her first visit to the stadium with her followers. Her approach quickly went viral, her face with the beard stuck on made her go around the world and brought to light numerous supporters and imitators. Zahra has long since ceased to be a lone fighter, but has launched a remarkable movement that, with the plan to make stadiums in Iran accessible to everyone, is at the same time extremely effective in fighting for equal rights for women.

Where is the focus?

Compared to her fame and her exciting deeds, however, her life is relatively unspectacular. As a bank employee, she does not earn much money and often has to worry about financial matters. Since she always has to invest in new clothes and accessories for her visits to the stadium, she also receives a lot of criticism from her mother. A certain generation gap between the women also becomes clear. While Zahra gets a lot of support and encouragement from women her age, her mother doesn’t seem to understand why going to the stadium is so important to her – to her it’s just plain expensive and dangerous. But Zahra doesn’t seem to see or doesn’t want to see that she is fundamentally fighting for equality in Iran.

However, apart from these sections, the documentation then fails to remain really interesting and exciting. Everything that has to do with visiting the stadium, be it buying clothes, dressing up and doing your hair, putting on make-up and even going to the stadium itself, is incredibly captivating and, given the liberal conditions prevailing in Germany, always makes a difference Head shaking and bewilderment. In between, the focus then wanders again and again, showing Zahra in situations that have nothing to do with the topic or represent the fight for equality or oppression on another level. These sections then seem to fall out of the overall picture and feel a bit like gap fillers. All in all, the story about Zahra is a fascinating one that is definitely worth pursuing.

Credits

OT: „The Football Aficionado“
Land: Iran
Year: 2022
Director: Sharmin Mojtahedzadeh, Paliz Khoshdel
Script: Sharmin Mojtahedzadeh, Paliz Koshdel
Music: Mohammad Mousavi
Camera: Sharmin Majtahedzadeh
Contributors: Zahra Khoshnavaz, Kobra Baghi Pour, Reyhaneh Rezaie, Leili Ghanbari, Leili Maleki

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2023-07-15 13:02:05
#Football #Aficionado #FilmRezensionen.de