Ms Bita Takrimi

Northwestern University

Bio

Bita is a PhD candidate whose research focuses on Persian and Russian literature, literary adaptation, and transnational cinema. Her work explores the reception and reinterpretation of Russian literature in Iran, particularly the ways literary texts are transformed across linguistic, cultural, and historical contexts.

From Petersburg to Tehran: Dostoevsky, Precarious Masculinity, and Transnational Adaptation in Oktay Baraheni’s Pol-e Khab

Abstract

This paper examines Oktay Baraheni’s Pol-e Khab (The Dream Bridge, 2016) as an Iranian reinterpretation of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. Rather than emphasizing narrative fidelity, it explores how the film relocates Dostoevskian themes of guilt, suffering, moral fragmentation, and redemption within contemporary Tehran. Focusing on economic precarity, masculinity, urban alienation, and psychological isolation, the paper argues that Pol-e Khab demonstrates how literary adaptation can transform Dostoevsky’s existential concerns across cultural and historical contexts.