Reading Lolita in Tehran
Azar Nafisi, a former professor at Tehran University, secretly gathers seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden western classics. As fundamentalists seize control, the women remove their veils, speak about their intimate hopes, loves and disappointments, their femininity and their search for a place in an increasingly oppressive society. By reading Lolita in Tehran, they celebrate the liberating power of literature in revolutionary Iran and form their own future.
As Islamic morality squads stage arbitrary raids in Tehran and as fundamentalists seize hold of the universities, Azar Nafisi, an inspired teacher, secretly gathers six of her most committed female students to read forbidden western classics. Unaccustomed to being asked to speak their minds, they soon removed their veils, their stories intertwining with the novels they read: just like the heroines of Nabokov, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James or Jane Austen, the women in Nafisi’s living room dare to dream, hope and love as we experience the complexity of the lives of individuals facing political, moral and personal siege. Reading Lolita in Tehran is a remarkable exploration of women’s resilience in revolutionary Iran.
Regie
Eran Riklis, born in Jerusalem in 1954, grew up in Canada, the USA, Brazil, and Israel. In 1984 he became the first Israeli graduate of the prestigious National Film and Television School in England. He directed numerous television productions and more than 300 commercials before focusing on feature films. His breakthrough came with CUP FINAL, screened in Berlin and Venice. Among his most acclaimed works are THE SYRIAN BRIDE, winner of multiple international awards in Montréal, Locarno, and Ghent, and LEMON TREE (2008, Berlinale Panorama Audience Award). 2019 Riklis’s spy drama SPIDER IN THE WEB was produced through a significant international collaboration, with Ben Kingsley and Monica Bellucci starring in the lead roles.