PERSIAN LESSONS

PERSISCHSTUNDEN

By Vadim PERELMAN

HYPE STUDIOS - as PROD

Drama - Completed 2019

Occupied France, 1942. Gilles (Nahuel Perez Biscayart) is arrested by SS soldiers alongside other Jews and sent to a camp in Germany. He narrowly avoids sudden execution by swearing to the guards that he is not Jewish, but Persian.

Festivals
& Awards

Berlinale - Berlin IFF 2020
Special Gala
    • Year of production
    • 2019
    • Genres
    • Drama
    • Countries
    • RUSSIA, GERMANY
    • Languages
    • FRENCH, GERMAN, ENGLISH
    • Duration
    • 127 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Vadim PERELMAN
    • Writer(s)
    • Ilja ZOLFIN
    • Producer(s)
    • Ilya STEWART (Hype Films), Murad OSMANN (HYPE FILM), Pavel BURYA (HYPE FILM)
    • Synopsis
    • Occupied France, 1942. Gilles (Nahuel Perez Biscayart) is arrested by SS soldiers alongside other Jews and sent to a camp in Germany. He narrowly avoids sudden execution by swearing to the guards that he is not Jewish, but Persian.
      This lie temporarily saves him, but Gilles gets assigned a life-or-death mission: to teach Farsi to Head of Camp Koch (Lars Eidinger), who dreams of opening a restaurant in Iran once the war is over.
      Through an ingenious trick, Gilles manages to survive by inventing words of “Farsi” every day and teaching them to Koch. The particular relationship between the two men sparks the jealousy of other prisoners and SS guards towards Gilles. And while the suspicions of Koch grow every day, Gilles understands that he will not be able to keep his secret very long...