'Reading Lolita in Tehran' Review: Noble but Surface-Level
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Eran Riklis directed the adaptation of Azar Nafisi's bestselling memoir 'Reading Lolita in Tehran,' with Golshifteh Farahani starring as Nafisi across two timelines: her late-1970s professorship at the University of Tehran and her mid-1990s book club for female students reading banned Western novels in her apartment.
- The film's central book club uses Nabokov's 'Lolita' to discuss how men rationalize desire, Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' to map Iran's courtship restrictions onto broader history, and Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby' — which male colleagues had declared 'profoundly immoral' — as proof of literature's transgressive power.
- IndieWire's review credits Farahani's performance, achieved largely through her eyes, and notes a stark visual contrast — brightly lit, colorful book club scenes against grayish, muddy depictions of life in Tehran — but argues the film reads more like an 'after-school special about the magic of reading' than a cinematic work.
- The reviewer concedes the film's messages about literature's universal brilliance are 'correct' but says the adaptation never transcends platitudes, recommending it only to existing fans of Nafisi's memoir rather than as a gateway to her work.
- Greenwich Entertainment released the film, now playing in select theaters with a runtime of less than two hours.
Why it matters: IndieWire's verdict — correct messages, thin cinematic execution — limits the film's role as an entry point for viewers who haven't read Nafisi: devotees will see it, newcomers may not leave converted. For Greenwich Entertainment, that positioning is reinforced by the sub-two-hour, select-theatrical rollout rather than a wide platform release.
