Despite the film's title, "Reading Lolita in Teheran" was filmed in Italy, mostly at Cinecitta. The film's female lead actresses are Iranian artist banned by the islamic regime. Golshifteh Farahani and Zar Amir Ebrahimi live in Paris and they are not allowed to go back to their home country because of their participation in Occidental movies.
The film is divided into four chapters, all of them share the title of a main English language classic book: "The Great Gatsby", "Lolita", "Daisy Miller" and "Pride and Prejudice". All this books are still banned in Iran.