Did Donald Trump Just Re-Enact the Plot of a Jafar Panahi Film?

Five young Iranian women with a passion for the country’s soccer program desperately need backing from a military-minded authority figure to avoid government punishment, all against the backdrop of a World Cup qualifier.

It sounds a lot like what President Donald Trump just did in pressuring the Australian prime minister to grant asylum for five members of Iran’s women’s World Cup team. But it also is pretty much the logline for Offside, Jafar Panahi’s soccer-themed Farsi-language classic that debuted at Berlin 20 years ago last month and that set the stage for his current powerhouse It Was Just an Accident.

Given that his taste in movies runs different from Berlinale favorites, Trump is unlikely to have seen Panahi’s one-time Silver Bear winner. But Offside nonetheless provides a curious foretelling to what has played out in real time this week — and shows both the surreally cinematic qualities…