‘Reading Lolita in Tehran’ Review: Intimate Adaption of Azar Nafisi’s Memoir Is Inherently Feminine and Political
variety.comTomris Laffly Across “Lemon Tree,” “The Syrian Bride” and “Shelter,” Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis has built a sturdy body of work, telling defiant stories of Middle Eastern women from different walks of life.
With “Reading Lolita in Tehran” — a moving adaptation of Iranian-American author and professor Azar Nafisi’s memoir — he adds an understated, yet generally absorbing and similarly minded entry to his oeuvre, warmly transposing Nafisi’s experience in the post-revolution Iran onto the screen with sensitivity.
Unfolding in episodic segments and significant jumps in time that sometimes feel too abrupt, the screenplay by Marjorie David follows Nafisi (an expressive Golshifteh Farahani) across a 24-year period, after the young academic holding a fresh American degree settles in Tehran with her husband Bijan (Arash Marandi) in 1979, on the heels of the country’s Islamic Revolution.
A title card at the start contextualizes the couple’s return to their homeland. Historically, it was a time of hope in Iran, with many Iranians residing abroad going back to their country on false promises.
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