Aarcflick

 Art can speak to anyone, regardless of the distance between the work's content, its creator's experiences, and its purpose—whether intentional or seemingly obvious—vis-à-vis the audience. *Reading Lolita in Tehran* deals precisely with this, as well as the personal experiences of its protagonist: an English literature professor who returned to Iran in the midst of the 1979 revolution, harboring high hopes and the promise of a fulfilling career and life. Over the course of some two decades, the professor comes to realize that—at least regarding the former—achieving this might not be possible in that place. Director Eran Riklis’s film is an adaptation of Azar Nafisi’s memoir; the screenplay, written by Marjorie David, retains the book’s central premise: examining the author’s experiences and discoveries through the lens of various literary works. One of these is, of course, Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial *Lolita*, which leads the film’s Azar—played by Golshifteh Farahani, an I...