April 5 (Bloomberg) -- Iranian director Jafar Panahi's last three films have won awards and praise from critics around the world. None has been distributed in his homeland.

To make his latest movie, ``Offside,'' a comic tale about a government ban against females attending soccer games, Panahi was forced at times to work in secret, without permits or professional equipment.

``We've always had censorship problems in Iran, and filmmakers have always found ways to circumvent censorship to make the movies they want to make,'' Panahi, 46, said through an interpreter in a telephone interview from his home in Tehran.

The film focuses on six fictional young women who are arrested while trying to sneak into a World Cup qualifying match; they're defying a ban designed to protect them from the rowdy language of the all-male crowd. The film, which opened last week in New York and Los Angeles, won the second-highest award at last year's Berlin Film Festival. Of 37 reviews posted on RottenTomatoes.com, 36 are positive.

The reception in Iran wasn't as warm. ``Offside'' was shown last year at the Fajr International Film Festival in Tehran but was denied distribution in theaters, Panahi said. His two previous films, ``Crimson Gold'' and ``The Circle,'' also failed to reach theaters in Iran.

His movies have fared better outside the country. ``Crimson Gold,'' which looks at the privileges of Iran's upper class through the eyes of a pizza-delivery man, won a major award at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. ``The Circle,'' a study of women forced to live outside the boundaries of Islamic law, won the Golden Lion award at the 2000 Venice Film Festival.

Daughter Sneaks In

Unlike those darker tales, ``Offside'' uses humor to examine repressive aspects of Iranian culture. The film was inspired by Panahi's attempt to take his 12-year-old daughter to a soccer match in Tehran. When she was turned away at the gate, Panahi told her to go home. Instead, she found a way past the guards and joined him in the stadium. His daughter, now 18, has refused to tell him how she got in.

``The only thing she told me was, `You know, the girls eventually find a way,''' Panahi said.

The six girls in ``Offside'' aren't so fortunate. Dressed as boys, they are caught at the stadium gates and held in a fenced- off area. While waiting for a bus to take them to the police station, they chide their guards, pointing out the absurdity of the ban. The guards, young Army conscripts who themselves would rather be watching the game, struggle to provide a reasonable answer.

Hidden in Pocket

When Panahi applied to the Iran's Ministry of Culture for permits to make the movie, he was told he would first have to edit certain scenes out of ``Crimson Gold'' and ``The Circle,'' and then take a year's hiatus from filmmaking as punishment for those movies.

Refusing to make the changes, Panahi wrote a fake script about boys' soccer and had it submitted to the ministry under the name of a friend. He used those permits to film portions of ``Offside.'' Other scenes, including shots taken inside the stadium during the actual match played against Bahrain in 2005, were filmed surreptitiously with a handheld video camera, Panahi said.

He got the film out of Iran by slipping a videocassette copy into his coat pocket before a flight to Paris.

Box-office receipts for Panahi's films have been small by Hollywood standards: So far ``Offside,'' distributed in the U.S. by Sony Pictures Classics, has generated worldwide sales of $274,000. ``Crimson Gold'' took in $401,000 and ``The Circle'' $440,000, according to Box Office Mojo.

A larger benefit may be the protection that international notoriety has provided, Panahi said. In 2001 authorities government arrested filmmaker Tahmineh Milani for ``counterrevolutionary'' comments she made to an Iranian newspaper. Milani, who was threatened with the death penalty, was released a few days later, thanks in part to an outcry from Americans and Europeans familiar with her work.

``They had to let her go,'' Panahi said. ``I guess it taught them the lesson that Iranian filmmakers are so well known there's not much they can do to them.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael White in Los Angeles at mwhite8@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 5, 2007 00:07 EDT