Persian Lessons

Occupied France, 1942. Gilles (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, 'Glue', '120 Beats per Minute') is a Belgian Jew captured by Nazi soldiers and sent to a brutal concentration camp in Germany. To avoid execution, he swears to the guards that he is not in fact Jewish, he's Persian. Klaus Koch (Lars Eidinger, 'Clouds of Sils Maria', 'Personal Shopper'), a German officer and chef, then hires Gilles to teach him Farsi as he wishes to open a restaurant in Iran when the war is over. Their peculiar relationship sparks suspicion and jealousy amongst the other prisoners and guards, and Gilles begins to fear that his secret will not hold up under their intense scrutiny for long.

'Persian Lessons' is a war drama film directed by the acclaimed Vadim Perelman ('House of Sand and Fog', 'The Life Before Her Eyes') and written by Ilya Tsofin ('Yolki 1914'). The film also stars Leonie Benesch ('The Crown', 'Babylon Berlin'), Jonas Nay ('Deutschland 89', 'Tannbach'), David Schütter ('Strawberry Bubblegums', 'Charlie's Angels'), Luisa-Céline Graffron ('Six Minutes to Midnight', 'Scene of the Crime'), Alexander Beyer ('The Little Drummer Girl', 'Munich'), Peter Beck ('The Visitor', 'Mimicry'), Andreas Hofer ('Robin Hood', 'Leo und Claire') and Giuseppe Schillaci ('Romulus', 'The Italian').