Movie

Persian Lessons

2020 · 127 min

A tense, grim survival drama where each invented word is a lifeline, leaving you anxious and moved.

Overview: Occupied France, 1942. Gilles 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, 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.
How it feels: Tense, dark, bleak and melancholic. Slow-burning and needs your attention.
About: Survival, identity, deception, war
Content: Strong violence. Mild gore and language. No sexual content.
Note: Written by AI, so it can be wrong. Full breakdown

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Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Full breakdown

Tone: tensestrength 3 of 3
darkstrength 3 of 3
bleakstrength 2 of 3
melancholicstrength 2 of 3
Pacing: slow-burn, 1 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention: engaged, 3 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes: survival
identity
deception
war
memory
Places: military
countryside
Era: period
Audience: adult
Form: single location
Content intensity: Gore mild
Language mild
Violence strong
Sex none