TELL ME A RIDDLE

Special Features: 4K Restoration

In her theatrical directorial debut, Lee Grant, working with screenwriters Joyce Eliason and Alev Lytle, adapts Tillie Olsen’s O. Henry Award-winning novella as a moving meditation on aging and coming to terms with the past. Melvyn Douglas and Lila Kedrova star as elderly Midwestern Jewish couple David and Eva. When David learns that Eva has terminal cancer, the two set out on a pilgrimage to visit their children and grandchildren, occasioning a reflection on the unexamined corners of their souls they have too long neglected in order to raise their family. Also featuring performances by Brooke Adams, Peter Coyote and Zalman King, Grant’s touching and richly traced film is notable for having been directed, written and produced exclusively by women. (Note courtesy of Film at Lincoln Center.) DIR Lee Grant; SCR Joyce Eliason, Alev Lytle, from the novella “Tell Me a Riddle” by Tillie Olsen; PROD Mindy Affrime, Rachel Lyon, Susan O’Connell. U.S., 1980, color, 90 min. RATED PG

Restored in 2022 by the Academy Film Archive and The Film Foundation. Restoration funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. Special thanks to Mindy Affrime, Rachel Lyon and Susan O’Connell.

Run Time: 90 Minutes

Opening Date: Sunday, November 23, 2025

Genre: Drama

View Series Page