Boulder Jewish Film Festival: Reading Lolita in Tehran

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This stirring adaptation of Azar Nafisi’s 2003 memoir, which spent 100 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, is a testament to resilience, resistance and courage. Acclaimed Israeli director Eran Riklis worked with prominent Iranian actors living in exile to create this exploration of female solidarity in post-Revolutionary Iran. The taut drama chronicles the literature professor’s decision to host a secret book salon in her living room, where her female students read banned Western classics, drawing inspiration from the heroines of Nabokov, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James and Jane Austen. As the Islamic regime tightens its grip on intellectual freedom, this clandestine encounter with transformative stories stokes the ambitions of women enduring misogyny, censorship and religious extremism. The film takes place over two decades, starting in 1979, but could not be more relevant today. “Reading Lolita in Tehran” co-stars Zar Amir Ebrahimi, who co-directed and co-starred in last year’s Audience Award winner, “Tatami.”

Feature/107 minutes/In Farsi/2025

Directed by Eran Riklis