Persian lessons
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Persian lessons |
| Country of production | Germany , Russia |
| original language | German , French |
| Publishing year | 2020 |
| length | 127 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Vadim Perelman |
| script | Ilya Zofin |
| production |
Sol Bondy , Ilya Stewart , Ilya Zofin , Murad Osmann , Jamila Wenske |
| music |
Evgueni Galperine , Sacha Galperine |
| camera | Vladislav Opelyants |
| cut | Vessela Martschewski |
| occupation | |
| |
Persian Lessons (international English-language title Persian Lessons ) is a film drama by Vadim Perelman that premiered in February 2020 as part of the Berlin Film Festival . The film is essentially based on the content of the story Invention of a Language by Wolfgang Kohlhaase .
action
During the Second World War in occupied France, 1942. Gilles, the son of a rabbi from Antwerp who actually wanted to flee to Switzerland, is arrested by SS soldiers along with other Jews. He barely escapes an execution in the forest because he swears to the SS that he is not a Jew but a Persian. This lie saves his life because Hauptsturmführer Klaus Koch, who organizes food for the SS men and prisoners in a transit camp, is urgently looking for someone who speaks Farsi.
Because he is in possession of a book in the Persian language, he is brought to Koch, who, after a little test, believes him. He takes the name Reza Joon, on the cover of the book the name of the son to whom his father gave the book. Gilles speaks French and German, but in Persian he only knows the words for mother and father, which is enough to convince the Hauptsturmführer. Koch, who previously worked as a chef in a large restaurant, plans to go to Tehran after the war is won and open a restaurant there, which is why he plans to learn as many vocabulary as possible over the next two years. It doesn't bother him that Gilles declares that he cannot write Farsi.
Koch assigns him to the kitchen, and while he works, Gilles begins to invent and memorize vocabulary for all kinds of words that have to do with cooking and eating. Gilles also has to learn all the vocabulary that Koch studies. Koch is also responsible for keeping records of the prisoners, but also those who were killed or who died in the deportation. The lists lead, not entirely to Koch's satisfaction, Miss Stocking. Since Rottenführer Max Beyer mistrusted the Persian from the start, and the one he still believes to be a Jew takes over the work of Miss Strumpf, both plan together to let Gilles flee in order to get rid of him, but he quickly realizes the trap and that there is no escape for him and trudges back into the camp. His work as an accountant quickly turned out to be a stroke of luck, however, because in order to invent more and more new vocabulary for Koch's language lessons, he was inspired by the names of the prisoners he writes in the lists, which means that both tasks can be performed at the same time.
When Koch assigns his Persian to a picnic with the camp management, Gilles, out of thoughtlessness, uses a word that he had previously used for another term. Koch believes he has been betrayed by him and beats him up and assigns him to work in the quarry, where Beyer is supposed to make his life hell. However, Gilles can continue to uphold the lie because, even in a fever after a breakdown at work, he still utters his fictional Persian. Koch apologizes and wants to keep his Persian even after the planned transfer of the prisoners to a camp in Poland, so he puts him on a nearby farm for a few days.
Gilles cannot confide in himself to his fellow inmates, but he helps newcomers as much as he can. He even plans to go to Poland instead of a prisoner, which Koch prevents. As the Allies approached the camp, the SS began not only to burn the prisoners' lists, but also any documents that they could relate to their function in the camp or to the atrocities. Koch leaves the camp with Gilles, and they part ways in the forest.
Koch, who wants to flee to Tehran, betrays himself at the border through his invented Farsi, which he has learned from Gilles for years, and is arrested. Gilles is one of the few surviving prisoners of the camp who can report to the liberators. While working in the registry, he memorized 2,840 names of people who were on the lists that the camp management gave to the fire before the camp was liberated.
production
The film is based on the story Invention of a Language by Wolfgang Kohlhaase . In it, the Dutch student Straat, who was captured by the Nazis, claims to speak Persian and is therefore supposed to teach the bored security guard Battenbach.
The film project was initiated by Ilya Zofin , who also wrote the script based on Kohlhaase's story. Zofin knew the story of the Jews who survived the concentration camp on the basis of a language he had invented and believed that it was a true incident. During the production, when the script had already been written and when it was heard that the story actually came from the story by Kohlhaase, the film rights to the book were acquired. Directed by Vadim Perelman . The film was produced by LM Media and Hype Film. The score was composed by Evgueni and Sacha Galperine .
The leading roles of Klaus Koch and Gilles were cast with the German actor Lars Eidinger and the Argentine actor Nahuel Pérez Biscayart . Jonas Nay , Leonie Benesch , Alexander Beyer , David Schütter and Luisa-Céline Gaffron can be seen in other roles .
The shooting took place from November 7, 2018 to January 20, 2019 on a total of 33 days in Minsk . The film set is a patchwork of elements from different camps. The transition camp in the film was recreated using various photos and videos that were found. The film team was primarily inspired by the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp , a so-called penal and labor camp of National Socialist Germany near the town of Natzweiler in occupied French Alsace, about 55 kilometers southwest of Strasbourg. The main gates in the film were based on the Buchenwald concentration camp .
The film's world premiere took place on February 22, 2020 in the Berlinale Special Gala section of the Berlin Film Festival . At the end of August and beginning of September 2020, it will be presented in the open-air edition of the Festival of German Films , as well as at the Five Lakes Film Festival , in mid-September 2020 as part of the Leipzig Film Art Fair . It is scheduled to be released in German cinemas on September 24, 2020.
reception
Reviews
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Kaleem Aftab writes in the online cinema magazine Cineuropa that Vadim Perelman managed to tell a very remarkable story against the backdrop of the Second World War . The film set, inspired by the Natzweiler-Struthof camp , is full of details from that time. Occasionally the plot lacks a bit of tension, and attempts to give supporting characters decent plot are by and large not convincing. But when watching the game of the two main actors Nahuel Pérez Biscayart and Lars Eidinger, there is a lot to like. There are many elements in Persian lessons that feel like old British war films , and in the end the viewer is rewarded with a mixture of fun and pathos. Compared to Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful , Persian lessons do not achieve the same dramatic heights or laughter that this Oscar winner evokes, but the film still does not forget the seriousness of the atrocities committed, such as the particularly barbaric treatment of Gilles' fellow inmates will be shown.
Boyd van Hoeij of The Hollywood Reporter notes that the film is essentially a kind of intimate play set in the forecourt of Hell. Ilya Zofin's dialog-heavy script doesn't seem too interested in the complexity of the power dynamics or in what Koch's interest in the Persian language could say about his loyalty to the Nazis, according to van Hoeij. Nonetheless, Persian lessons , especially through some well-written subplots, give a good impression of the inner workings of a Nazi transit camp and how rumors, false suspicions and the slightest misconduct can influence decisions about life and death. In terms of décor and costume design, Perelman took an approach that relies on cinematic depictions of the old-school Holocaust rather than something newer, like the claustrophobic and cacophonic chaos of Son of Saul . Evgueni and Sacha Galperine's orchestral score is mostly conventional, with the exception of an enchanting atonal piece in the middle of the film, which offers a glimpse into a more daring and experimental interpretation of the material.
Awards
- Nomination for the Five Lakes Film Award
Persian lessons are also in the preselection for the European Film Awards 2020 .
literature
- Wolfgang Kohlhaase and Bernhard Heisig: Invention of a language , with 5 original lithographs and 4 pen drawings. Faber and Faber, Leipzig 2005. ISBN 9783936618341
Web links
- Persian hours in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Persian lessons at crew united
- Persian Lessons in the Berlin Film Festival program
Individual evidence
- ↑ Certificate of release for Persian lessons . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 197434 / K).
- ^ Peter Debruge: 'Persian Lessons': Film Review. In: Variety, February 22, 2020.
- ↑ Cornelia Geißler: Berlinale Special Gala: Lars Eidinger convinces in “Persian Lessons”. In: Berliner Zeitung, February 22, 2020.
- ↑ Inventing what is available. In: lr-online.de, April 16, 2008.
- ↑ Persian Lessons: Press Conference. In: berlinale.de, February 22, 2020. (Video)
- ↑ a b Kaleem Aftab: Review: Persian Lessons. In: cineuropa.org, March 3, 2020.
- ↑ Press release Berlinale Special: Glances at Society. In: berlinale.de. Retrieved January 23, 2020.
- ↑ Persian lessons. In: festival-des-deutschen-films.de. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
- ↑ The films of the 20th Film Art Fair 2020. In: filmkunstmesse.de. Retrieved August 22, 2020 (PDF; 426 KB)
- ↑ Start dates in Germany. In: insidekino.com. Retrieved June 7, 2020.
- ↑ Boyd van Hoeij: 'Persian Lessons': Film Review. In: The Hollywood Reporter, March 4, 2020.
- ^ Jochen Müller: nominees for the Five Lakes Film Prize named. In: Blickpunkt: Film, August 18, 2020.
- ↑ EFA 2020 - EFA Feature Film Selection. Part 1. In: europeanfilmawards.eu, August 18, 2020.