Reza finds himself in a place where many viisble minorities in Europe find themselves – at a concentration camp. At night, before sleeping, he repeats words to himself. In a way, he’s preparing a lesson plan for himself and for Klaus Koch (Lars Eidinger), an SS Officer who’s learning Farsi from him. But as it turns out, he’s not Reza the Persian but Gilles (Nahuel Perez Biscayart), a Jewish man. And outside of ‘bawbaw,’ the only real Farsi word that he knows, he’s making up words in a fake language that Klaus is learning. How long can he keep this up before Klaus finds out the truth? A lot of Vadim Perelman’s Persian Lessons show Gilles’ obviously volatile situation, as Klaus gives him different assignments.

When Klaus believes him, he works as the camp’s bookkeeper and personal tutor for Klaus. Gilles makes up enough words for the both of them to converse in broken faux Farsi. In doing so, something magical happens as both men express something deeper within themselves. Pardon the crass comparison but it’s like watching characters speak in a fake language in a low genre show. Like the way characters in the Game of Thrones universe express emotional catharsis while speaking Valyrian. But when Klaus doesn’t believe him, he switches from kitchen duty to working in a nearby farm or qaurry, and the quarry is worse than the farm. Even in silent moments, Perez Biscayart shines.

In these silent moments, the viewers can feel Gilles resting before he has to face his daily horrors. The focus is big enough on Gilles, but sadly, Persian Lessons gives too much of its 2 hour running time to its bad guys. The film’s choice to spotlight the Nazis is, ugh, understandable. I’m someone who can’t speak Persian but knows an Indo-Aryan language by the way it sounds. Nazis, on the other hand, find their knowledge through assumptions and hubris, so one can literally teach a Nazi something and they will take it without using their absent critical thinking skills. Eidinger imbues his character with enough cruelty but the screenplay still backslides Klaus into ‘Good Nazi’ territory.

As Persian Lessons turns Klaus into an antihero, it opens up the villain spot for Max Meyer (Jonas Ney). He’s a lower ranking officer who knows that Gilles is lying about being Persian. The film’s decision to make most of its major characters the Nazi ones is baffling. It’s just as infuriating for the film to concentrate on these officer’s petty drama. There’s a better version of this that highlighted a few more Jewish characters. Most of rthe Jewish characters in this film exist as names for Gilles to memorize, names that he converts into the faux Farsi words. But I don’t think that’s good enough representation.

Watch Persian Lessons in select theatres.