Persian Lessons (2023)

3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Prey on Words

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Based on a short story by Wolfgang Kohlhaase, Persian Lessons is a Holocaust movie, but one with a soft touch, drawing us into the story without threat. A Belgian Jew is captured by the Nazis. While riding on the truck toward the camps, he trades a sandwich for an expensive Persian book, containing an inscription written in Farsi. When the truck stops and the Nazis begin executing the passengers, he uses the book to claim that he is Persian, even though he doesn't speak or read Farsi, to save his own life.

It so happens that Deputy Commandant Klaus Koch (Lars Eidinger) is looking for a Persian. Koch wants to learn Farsi so that he can move to Tehran after the war and open a restaurant. Now going by "Reza" (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart), the man repeats the only Farsi word he knows, "Daddy," from the inscription. From there, he begins making words up. The problem is that he must also remember the words he made up, so he cooks up a plan to shorten the names of the other prisoners and turn them into his own, entire made-up language.

There are moments of suspense, as when a real Farsi-speaking Persian winds up in the camp, and moments of beauty, as we watch Reza choose names for each hungry prisoner. But the heart of the piece is the growing relationship between Reza and Klaus. They become closer, and Klaus becomes lenient with Reza, offering him certain perks, but they do not become friends. Reza is forever aware that this man is a Nazi, that he made a choice, and that choice has resulted in much death. It's a fascinating balance.

Overall the film is a little too fanciful to register as a truly hard-hitting Holocaust tale; it leans more in the direction of Life Is Beautiful than Son of Saul. And it has a distracting subplot about a constantly-angry, not-too-bright Nazi soldier who has made it his life's mission to prove that Reza is a fake. (Shades of Hogan's Heroes?) But the fine performances, powerful storytelling, and the unforgettable final moments, more than make up for it.

Persian Lessons spent three years making the film festival rounds before it landed a small U.S. theatrical release in 2023. Now Cohen Media Group released it in a new Blu-ray, with trailers for this and a few other releases the only bonus. Recommended.