‘Reading Lolita in Tehran’ Review: Intimate Adaption of Azar Nafisi’s Memoir Is Inherently Feminine and Political

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

→ Continue reading at Variety

Similar Articles

Advertisment

Most Popular