Persian Lessons

A 2020 historical drama co-produced by Russia, Germany, and Belarus, directed by Vadim Perelman. The film is set in Nazi-occupied France during World War II. A young Belgian Jew, Gilles (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart), is captured and sent to a concentration camp. To escape execution, he falsely claims to be Persian rather than Jewish. The camp commander, Klaus Koch (Lars Eidinger), who dreams of moving to Iran after the war, appoints Gilles as his personal tutor in the "Persian language." Realizing that discovery would mean certain death, Gilles improvises by creating a fictitious language, inventing words daily and memorizing them while teaching Koch. As time passes, suspicions arise among the camp officers and prisoners, placing Gilles in increasing danger. The film highlights the brutality of war, the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity.