PERSIAN LESSONS 

Russia/Germany/Belarus, 2020, 126 minutes, Colour.

Nahuel Peres Biscayart, Lars Eidinger.

Directed by Vadim Perelman.

Persian Lessons is an unusual or unexpected title for a film about Nazis, Jews, concentration camps during World War II. It states that it is based on a true story.

While the story is intriguing in itself, the film is very strong on showing the callousness of the ordinary German soldiers, men and women, doing their duty with loyalty to Hitler, killing without any strong sense of destroying another human being, going off to be entertained as they dominate the prisoners.

Argentinian actor, Nahuel Peres Biscayart, plays Gilles, son of a rabbi, imprisoned in Belgium, allegedly to be transported but actually to be shot. In the back of the truck, he encounters another prisoner who is starving who begs him for his sandwich. He does give it and receives in return a book in Farsi that the other prisoner had picked up after a Persian family had been taken.

Gilles is shrewd and is able to survive for some time in the camp, producing the book, claiming that it was his, and that he had Persian ancestry. As happens, one of the officers commanding (a mixture of the cruel and the foolish), Koch (Lars Eidinger), remembers his brother who refused joining the Nazi party and went to open a restaurant in Teheran. He now wants to learn Farsi in order to be ready to go to Teheran after the war. Gilles offers a wonderful opportunity for him to learn the language.

On the one hand, there is a lot of farce as Gilles, sometimes with difficulty, especially in remembering the language and words he is creating, agrees to teach Koch Farsi, a few words at a time, then many words. Koch has sacked the female officer who was copying the names of prisoners into the register and Gilles gets the job, working part-time in the kitchen as well, living in the barracks.

This means that the audience sees the range of life in the concentration camp from the point of view of the officials, from the point of view of the workers, life in the barracks as well as in the quarries and the hardships of rock breaking.

Needless to say, there are some close moments at times but Gilles devises a clever way of inventing words by taking the first part of the surname of the prisoners and nominating a meaning!

With ups and downs, this continues for several years until the allies advance on the camp, Gilles finally taking on his Jewish identity and marching away with the condemned, Koch disguising himself and there are some very funny sequences, as might be anticipated, as he tries to talk to Allied officials with his years of learning Farsi vocabulary!

There must always be stories of World War II, of the Holocaust – this one is certainly arresting and rather different.

1. The title? A true story? Nazi Germany, concentration camps? The exotic Persian and Farsi background?
2. Another war story, Germans, Jews, Nazi behaviour, prisoners in camps? The issue of freedom? Variations on the well-known stories?
3. 1942, France, the roundup, the prisoners and vehicles, getting out, leaving the luggage, being suddenly and brutally shot? The reaction of the Germans and their killing?
4. The situation, Gillrd, in the train, the Jewish background, Rabbi father, having the sandwich, the prisoner’s appeal, Gilles giving it to him, getting the book in return, the dedication and his assuming that identity, abandoning the suitcases, the lineup for being shot, Gilles and his shrewdness, falling before the firing, his claiming to be Persian, the proving it,F speaking Farsi, Bayer and his reaction, reporting to Koch, the cans of meat as motivation, yet his suspicions?
5. Gilles’ character, his age, experience, intelligence, able to conceal the truth about himself, creativity and lies, adopting the identity, going to the barracks, assigned to work in the kitchen?
6. Koch, cruel, the executions, self-importance? His background as a chef? His joining the Party, his brother escaping, going to Teheran, his intentions of learning Farsi, after the war going to Teheran and setting up a restaurant? His dramatising the seeming callousness of the Nazis and the military, no remorse in killing?
7. The camp, the military, the women, enters into the log? The Commandant and his attitude? Bayer and the other soldiers, relationships, sexuality, jealousies? Plans and counter plans? Intrigues – and being sent to the front in Russia?
8. Koch, his desire to learn Farsi, his wariness, but believing Gilles, threats, getting him to work in the kitchen, but also copying the files?
9. The title of the film, the Persian lessons, the words, genial and his inventing them, Koch writing down, the limited number, rehearsing, the increasing number, caution his demands, Gilles having to learn the language he was creating and to use it? The transition from cooking to copying the documents, so neatly? His brainwave in using the names of the log to invent falsehoods?
10. Time passing, Koch learning, even writing a poem in the alleged Farsi, conversations? Bayer and his continued suspicions? The jealous former copyist? Giving Gilles the rubbish, an opportunity to escape? Gilles and the decision to return? The danger of the same word for bread and tree, his explanation? Sending him to the quarries and the harsh breaking of rocks? His collapse, hospital? Koch pardoning him? Koch and his explanation of the situations to the commander?
11. The war continuing, the women and their plans, and his plans, the gossip about the commander on sexuality? Using it to protect himself?
12. The approach of the Allies, the Germans burning all the documents?
13. The food, the Italians in the camp, Gilles getting the food for them, Koch allowing it? The confrontation in the barracks, the Italian giving his life?
14. Gilles and his escape plan, Koch and his plan, using the papers? Gilles and his putting on the Italian jacket, identifying as a Jew, Bayer telling Koch that he was leaving? Koch pursuing? Gilles continuing, his escape?
15. The humour and irony of Koch explaining his Ffarsi, and the interpreters commenting on his gibberish?
16. Gilles, with the Allies, the interrogations, his ability to recite from memory, with the association for words, the thousands of names and dates in the files?
17. The different war story?