diff --git a/django_elasticsearch/serializers.py b/django_elasticsearch/serializers.py
index 474e64e..98b2336 100644
--- a/django_elasticsearch/serializers.py
+++ b/django_elasticsearch/serializers.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import json
 import datetime
+from dateutil.parser import parse
 
 from django.db.models import FieldDoesNotExist
 from django.db.models.fields.related import ManyToManyField
@@ -64,7 +65,7 @@ def deserialize_field(self, source, field_name):
         # datetime
         typ = field.get_internal_type()
         if val and typ in ('DateField', 'DateTimeField'):
-            return datetime.datetime.strptime(val, '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%f')
+            return parse(val)
 
         if field.rel:
             # M2M