Persian Lessons is a 2020 war drama directed by Vadim Perelman, a co-production of Belarus, Germany and Russia set in occupied Europe in 1942. Its story turns on a single lie told at the edge of an execution and on the invented language that has to be built, word by word, to keep that lie standing.
What is Persian Lessons about?
Gilles Cremieux is a Belgian of Jewish origin who has been arrested along with other Jews and is about to be shot. To survive he swears that he is not Jewish at all but Persian. The claim works, though not for a reason he could have foreseen: the soldiers take him to Klaus Koch, a cook in a concentration camp who is looking for a real Persian. Koch plans to move to Iran once the war is over and open a restaurant there, so he wants someone who can teach him Farsi. Gilles does not speak the language. Brought before Koch, he has to produce vocabulary on demand, remember every term he makes up, and keep the lessons going day after day while camp life goes on around them. The two men are bound together as prisoner and jailer, and also as teacher and student.
About the cast
The cast is led by Nahuel Pérez Biscayart and Lars Eidinger, with Jonas Nay, Leonie Benesch, Alexander Beyer, David Schütter, Luisa-Céline Gaffron and Giuseppe Schillaci also credited. Vadim Perelman directs.
Context & significance
The drama belongs to the body of European cinema about the Holocaust and the Second World War, and it is listed under the Drama and War genres. Its setting is a concentration camp during the German occupation, and the historical persecution of Jews forms the background to the whole story. The running time is 127 minutes. The premise rests on an exchange between two people, a teacher who has nothing real to teach and a student who believes him, so language itself becomes the central subject: how words are formed, memorised and trusted. For Persian-speaking viewers there is an added point of interest, because Farsi and Iran sit at the centre of the plot even though the man giving the lessons does not actually know the language.
Watching Persian Lessons on Ktime
Persian Lessons is available on K-Time with both a Persian dub and Persian subtitles. The page is free to read; playing the title requires logging in to a K-Time account. The service is built for Persian-speaking audiences abroad and offers a full Farsi interface.