Persian Lessons

Superbly acted

THE GUARDIAN

Archive - Festival 37
Director: Vadim Perelman
Germany 2021
128 minutes
German, French, , English, Italian
Subtitles in Hebrew, English

Gilles, a young Belgian man, is arrested by the SS alongside other Jews and sent to a concentration camp in Germany. He narrowly avoids execution by swearing to the guards that he is not Jewish, but Persian. This lie temporarily saves him, but then Gilles is assigned a seemingly untenable mission: to teach Persian to Koch, the officer in charge of the camp's kitchen, who dreams of opening a restaurant in Persia (Iran) once the war is over.

Vadim Perelman directs the gripping drama with an assured hand, deftly mixing suspense, laughter and tears. The war-of-words film rests on a truly memorable performance by Nahuel Pérez.

Filmography: Buy Me (2018), The Life Before Her Eyes (2007), House of Sand and Fog (2003).

Director Vadim Perelman
Production Ilya Stewart, Murad Osmann, Pavel Buria, Ilya Zofin, Vadim Perelman, Timur Bekmambetov, Rauf Atamalibekov
Script Ilya Zofin, based on a story by Wolfgang Kohlhaase
Cinematography Vladislav Opelyants
Editing Vessela Martschewski, Thibault Hague
Music Evgueni Galperine, Sacha Galperine
Festivals Berlin, Moscow
Actors Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Lars Eidinger
Source Lev Cinemas Ltd.