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Persian Lessons

6.6

2,246

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Original title

Persischstunden (Persian Lessons)

Year

2020

Running time

127 min.

Country

Russia

Director

Vadim Perelman

Screenwriter

Ilya Tsofin. Novel: Wolfgang Kohlhaase

Cast

Music

Evgueni Galperine, Sacha Galperine

Cinematography

Vladislav Opelyants

Producer

Co-production Russia-Germany-Belarus;

Hype Film, ONE TWO Films, LM Media, Belarusfilm

Genre

Drama | Prison Drama. Nazism. II World War. Holocaust. 1940s

Synopsis

1942. 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 Farsi to Koch, the officer in charge of the camp’s kitchen, who dreams of opening a restaurant in Iran once the war is over. Gilles finds himself having to invent a language he doesn’t know, word by word. As the unusual relationship between the two men begins to incite jealousy and suspicion, Gilles becomes acutely aware that one false move could expose his swindle. Filmmaker Vadim Perelman directs this gripping drama with a slick, assured hand. Persian Lessons achieves that rare feat of maintaining a fine balance between a respectful account of the horrors of the Shoah, and a sense of irony that may be one of the keys to surviving such madness.

Rankings Position

#44 Best Movies of 2020
#51 Best Russian Movies of all time

Awards: 2020: Sevilla Film Festival: Audience Award

2020: Valladolid International Film Festival - Seminci: Best Editing

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Persian Lessons

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