Bend It Like Beckham in 35mm

Sing (Stephen Chow), a former Shaolin monk known as Mighty Steel Leg, is down on his luck. Poor and unable to recruit students to carry out his dream of popularizing martial arts in the modern world, he resorts to petty theft to survive. When former soccer player Golden Leg Fung (longtime Chow collaborator Ng Man-tat) whose dreams of stardom were squashed years prior, notices Sing’s superhuman abilities, he persuades him to use his skills for soccer. Sing assembles a team of martial-arts masters to face off against a colorful swath of eccentric professional players. Stephen Chow’s slapstick sports comedy was a smash hit in Hong Kong and introduced Chow’s signature style to an international audience.

Since 1979, women in Iran have been barred from attending male sporting events, though intrepid female fans often disguise themselves as men to gain access. After his daughter tried the same on multiple occasions, filmmaker Jafar Panahi co-wrote this narrativized account of young women who attempt to sneak into the June 2005 Iran/Bahrain FIFA World Cup-qualifying match in Tehran. Oscar-nominated screenwriter Panahi uses the backdrop of the actual 2005 game to underscore the overwhelming male presence in public spaces and the inequality faced by women in 2006—a reality still pervasive 20 years later—as well as the value of community solidarity in the face of oppressive regulations on the populace.