Persian Lessons (2020) (2025)

Popular reviews

• Review by i'm so yulia🦊 ★★

  "I'm only a cook."
  No, you're a nazi, Klaus.

• Review by Simon Esser ★★★★½ 6

  „Nach Auschwitz ein Gedicht zu schreiben, ist barbarisch“ (Adorno)
  (~To indite a poem after Auschwitz is a barbaric act.)

  The contradiction between falling silent in the face of the holocaust and the necessity to realize a understanding and reminder via representation seems to be insuperable. Whereas Resnais' Night and Fog lapses into silence upon its pictures, Schindler's List uses classic hollywood dramaturgy to expose the bureaucracy behind the extermination system.

  Persian Lessons excels at doing a split between those two approaches. While its main narrative is forged like a thriller, the questions of the (in)ability to speak about the terror of the concentration camps is directly present by adressing the necessity to create a new language to approach the matter:…

• Review by Yortj ★★

  If you have ever thought you wanted to see a holocaust drama with small penis jokes, then definitely watch this.

  Otherwise, dont.

• Review by Faeze Pourpeyghambar ★★★ 6

  Persian Lessons, to me, is not the story about a simple kind of courage. I would rather use bravery than courage; This film, inspired by true events, is the story of Reza Joon and his bravery! A Belgian jew who is strong enough to go after life, pursuing lies after lies. And his bravery consists of such unrealistic strength to face danger despite his fears in the darkest times of his life that I sometimes simply forgot it’s a real story! That’s how the Holocaust is shown here from an unprecedented perspective.

  While travelling on his way to Switzerland, Reza Joon is captured and taken to Germany. During his transportation, he narrowly escapes death by persuading –you bet I mean…

• Review by Terence Ang 洪偉凱 ★★★★ 3

  This review may contain spoilers.

  "You would sacrifice your life for him? For him you would die with that nameless horde?"
  "They're only nameless because you don't know their names. But they are no worse than you."

  A Holocaust drama that is both horrifying and humorous -- give me more.

  Nahuel Pérez Biscayart's (120 battements par minute) Gilles reciting the names of the 2,840 prisoners he's met in a Nazi camp all from his mind;

  🤝 me, crying

  Eddie Redmayne's Tom Hayden in The Trial of the Chicago 7 reading down the names of the 4,752 soldiers killed in the Vietnam War.

  < Ang Ranking: Best International Feature Film submissions to the 93rd Academy Awards >

• Review by G a y a n ★★★★

  Underrated,

• Review by Rozhan Sadeghi ★★½ 1

  The idea behind it was really intriguing but the execution of it not so much. It was emotionless and as a result by the end, felt completely unnecessary.

• Review by Aleceiffel22 ★★★★ 1

  'The Banality of the evil' (Hannah Arendt)
  
  It's always difficult for me to watch movies about Nazis and see them act as human beings. But that's what they are: we've come along way to accept that those people, officers and soldiers alike, are in fact no monsters whatsoever. Science shows that only a very small percentage of people in a society, even in the Third Reich, where 'psychopaths' or mentally ill. This is one of the most important lessons we have learned from Hannah Arendt and others: almost everybody can be evil, almost everybody can become a murderer when the structures enable them to.

  Persian lessons shows the officer Koch (Lars Eidinger, can't get enough!) who is actually a chef…

• Review by Kap 🏳️‍🌈 ★★½

  This was so very well produced and made but sometimes the tone gets a little too light or jokey for the subject of the film at times. I don’t think we need comedic relief in the form of nazis making small penis jokes

• Review by Allison M. 🌱 ★★★★½

  Je me souviens/I remember.

  Due to Tribeca Festival and dwindling showtimes, I absolutely could not view Persian Lessons before I did, even though I wanted to. It's a harrowing an emotional journey of a Jewish man (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) who continually invents ways to stay alive during the Holocaust. First, he pretends to be dead, and then he claims that he is not Jewish, but a Persian man named Reza Joon.

  Marya E. Gates' review on Roger-Ebert.com claims that Nazis are humanized in this film. Absolutely not! They are shown for the monsters they are. Koch (Lars Eidinger) may have a brother and a genuine interest in learning Farsi, but Gilles is always one step away from a beating or…

• Review by Axcolmaraz ★★★½

  Gay vibes between a nazi and a Jew.

• Review by KathleenH ★★★★

  Brutal but not gruesome. Funny but not hilarious.
  A perfectly balanced drama that only loses a star because of its slightly unrealistic plot.