Critic Rating
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Director
Vadim Perelman
Cast
Nahuel Pérez Biscayart,
Lars Eidinger,
Jonas Nay,
Leonie Benesch,
Alexander Beyer,
David Schütter
Genre
War,
Drama
The story of how, in 1942, Gilles Crémier, a Belgian of Jewish origin, being in a concentration camp, pretends to be a Persian - for him this is the only way to stay alive. This lie really saves his life, but Gilles cannot even imagine at what price. German soldiers, satisfied with such a rare catch, lead Gilles to Klaus Koch, a cook in a concentration camp, who dreams, as soon as the war is over, to leave for Iran and open a restaurant there. Koch is looking for a real Persian who will teach him to speak Persian. So begins the story of Gilles Cremieu and Klaus Koch - a Jew and a German, a prisoner and jailer, a student and a teacher.
Observer by Rex Reed
Expertly mounted, beautifully acted and meticulously detailed, it’s another harrowing Holocaust drama in the line of endless films about World War II, notable primarily as a rare entry in the filmography of Vadim Perelman, the highly regarded director of House of Sand and Fog.
San Francisco Chronicle by Mick LaSalle
For Pérez Biscayart, it’s the sound equivalent of a masterful silent-film performance, and for Perelman, it’s the welcome return of an important filmmaker.
Washington Post by Mark Jenkins
Shot mostly in deeply shadowed interiors, the movie rarely makes effective use of its widescreen format. Indeed, it has a stagy quality and plays mostly as a series of theatrical exchanges between Gilles and Koch.
Los Angeles Times by Michael Rechtshaffen
That it ultimately manages to work as effectively as it does is a credit to the firm, focused visual grip of director Perelman, best known for his Oscar-nominated 2003 drama, “House of Sand and Fog,” and, especially the impressively-rooted portrayals of the two leads.
Original-Cin by Liam Lacey
Even with its decent performances and polished production values, Persian Lessons never clears the hurdle of its improbable premise, an idea that could serve as the setup for a bad-taste Mel Brooks’ sketch.
The New York Times by Beatrice Loayza
Less kooky and gratingly precious than “Jojo Rabbit” or “Life Is Beautiful,” the film nevertheless also taps history with a movie-magic wand.
RogerEbert.com by Marya E. Gates
Though millions of Jewish people were imprisoned and killed in concentration camps during this time, this misguided drama, written by Ilya Tsofin, isn’t interested in the truth of their stories. Instead, it’s a contrived triumph of the human spirit-style narrative where the Jewish character at the center is rendered a cipher for suffering while his Nazi tormentors are unconsciously humanized.
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