Iranian Panahi's "Offside" heads for Azerbaijan

The opening ceremony of the festival was held at the Heydar Aliyev Palace, where the Azerbaijan's Minister of Youth, Sport and Tourism Abulfaz Garayev delivered a speech, MNA reported.

He expressed hope that the event will help promote cooperation among filmmakers worldwide.

Besides watching the films made in Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkey, Iran, Central Asian states and others, the participants will partake in the roundtable discussions in Hillside Hotel.

According to the schedule, "Offside" is shown on Sept. 6 and Panahi has set out today to join the event which runs until Sept. 9.

The film tells the story of six Iranian girls, who disguise themselves as boys to enter Tehran's Azadi Stadium to watch the 2006 World Cup Asian zone qualifier between Iran and Bahrain but are arrested one by one.

The film was shown in Britain, Greece, Cyprus, and Sweden during the World Cup finals.

/IranMania/