Reading Lolita in Tehran

Only a woman who has lived in Iran and felt every moment of this film with her whole being can truly understand its real value someone who has endured the pain can describe it It may not captivate the global audience but every scene is one we have lived Pain in Persian language reads the same from every side it is still pain.

In the early years following the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Saddam Hussein violated the treaty signed with the previous Iranian government and launched an invasion, driven by a desire to access open waters. The Iranian people have historically demonstrated that when facing foreign aggression, they set aside internal disagreements and unite to defend their homeland.

However, the film portrays the war as a concern exclusive to hardline conservatives, implying that intellectuals, such as university students, are detached from that reality. At one point, a student who has returned from the front line sets himself on fire in the middle of class, claiming he was deceived.

But deceived by what? He went to war to defend his country against an aggressor-an Iraq that initiated the conflict. Where is the deception in that?

The film also shows women being flogged for having romantic or sexual relations with men. In reality, no woman is flogged merely for not being a virgin or for being in a gathering with men. Such punishments, when they occur, require legal evidence and a judge's order.

I was born and raised during the early years of the Revolution. I witnessed the limitations and have, on occasion, even been assaulted by religious hardliners. I lived that reality. I know that era of Iranian society. So I consider myself qualified to reject this film's portrayal.

The film is highly exaggerated. It portrays women as the primary victims, whereas in truth, restrictions applied to both men and women alike. The depiction of religious extremism on campus, forced confessions, and fabricated punishments is misleading and overstated.

In one scene, a woman nostalgically remembers a time when shops were open, contrasting it with a present where cafes and bookstores are shuttered, presenting the country as desolate and dark. This is simply false. Even during the war-and especially after-it's well known that the development and growth which had begun during the Pahlavi era continued and still does.

This film is no different from the biased Instagram or YouTube videos where a content creator, driven by a specific agenda, tries to paint Iran in an unfairly negative light and portray it as backward.

An israeli director making a film about Iran already tells whatever is needed to say. Absolutely ridiculous and pathetic to say the very least. This is an insult to human intelligence really, do these guys think we're all sleeping here?! Hahah like an american making a movie about russia.....yeah, NOPE! It doesn't work like that. Golshifteh also a total sellout clearly, these people have no dignity whatsoever. EMBARRASSING.

This is not an easy watch, and the documentary style opening anchors it firmly in reality. We are very much in Iran in the late 70s, but we could equally be anywhere else where oppression exists -- where a new beginning turned into a living nightmare.

Azar Nafisi, confidently returning from America, experiences the grim reality of Iran in the 80s. Exuberant and self-assured, her behaviour couldn't be further from what's expected of her as an educator and a woman.

Lead actress Golshifteh Farahani has the gravitas and leadership required for the role, but also the levity and mischief that fuels Azar's acts of resistance. She creates an alchemy with the superbly matched ensemble cast, translating the political dynamics into painfully accessible human relationships.

"There's a lot on the line for me", says a visibly tortured security guard to a non-compliant Azar, putting the responsibility on HER to save HIS skin. That scene really drove home the grotesque unfairness debilitating both sides.

As the film progresses, you feel it viscerally: sickened and squirming, eyes brimming with tears, then warmth and joy spilling into your belly. What really shows the brutality of the regime is not even the dramatic scenes of obvious shock value. It is the small everyday moments that constantly grate on dignity and liberty, until the only choice left is to leave.

And equally, it is the small everyday moments of defiance and connection that make you revel in joy and resistance. As the real life Azar Nafisi says in her book, these women "never had a private corner", and it is in her living room, in each other's company, that they experience privacy and individuality.

The film asks a lot of you, but the aftertaste that remains is not of oppression or tragedy. It's one of defiant joy, unquenchable hope, a love for Iran, and the safe haven of connection.

A literature teacher returns to Iran after the revolution in 1979 and with her own eyes, which get wetter and wetter as the film goes on, sees the changes that happen in her beautiful country and how women suffer injustice, violence, and some of them are violently raped and executed. It looks unbearable but she stays and even continues to teach this banned Western literature in secret. Her story is heartbreaking, and with her eyes we see other stories and broken lives; but what is even more important is that maybe, hopefully, in the future the people of Iran will be able to watch this. As part of their history. As part of their troubled past.