Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"Offside" is a 5-minute short film from Israel and has nothing to do with the Iranian Jafar Panahi movie from the same year with the same title. Guy Nattiv and Erez Tadmor wrote and directed this one and also won quite a few awards for it. We see two duos of soldiers and they are listening to radio coverage from the World Cup before finally shooting each other. The entire film is set at the Israeli-Palestinean border and is basically a statement how pointless this conflict is. However, is it really? I cannot say I agree particularly with the filmmakers' position and I did not think that the ending with the commentators describing the football game, but also the dead people at the border was particularly witty or creative. As a whole, I thought this would be better looking at all the awards it won, also the prestigious one here in Berlin. Also the whole situation of listening to the audio instead of shooting right away is pretty nonsensical and unrealistic. Thumbs down, not recommended.
