Film tells story of man who escaped from the Nazis by teaching a fake language

Director Vadim Perelman’s powerful and harrowing tale of a Jewish man who narrowly avoids being executed after pledging to teach Farsi to a Nazi commandant is at the heart of Persian Lessons, which is released
this week.

Inspired by true events, this harrowing story of survival is set in Nazi-occupied France in 1942 and revolves around Gilles (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart), who is arrested by SS soldiers and sent to a camp in Germany.

Just at the moment he might be killed, he tells the guards that he is not Jewish, but Persian, a lie that temporarily saves him, as he gets assigned a life-or-death mission: to teach Farsi to SS officer Klaus Koch (Lars Eidinger), who dreams of opening a restaurant in Iran after the war.

Gilles agrees, even though he does not speak Farsi, and instead survives by inventing words and teaching them to Koch. But how long can he keep up the charade?

This latest film from the director of House of Sand and Fog received a Special Gala screening at the Berlin Film Festival 2020. 

• Persian Lessons is released on digital platforms from tomorrow (Friday) and on DVD from 8 February.