PERSIAN LESSONS

1942. Gilles, a young Belgian man, is arrested by the SS alongside other Jews and sent to a concentration camp in Germany. He narrowly avoids execution by swearing to the guards that he is not Jewish, but Persian. This lie temporarily saves him, but then Gilles is assigned a seemingly untenable mission: to teach Persian to Koch, the officer in charge of the camp's kitchen, who dreams of opening a restaurant in Persia (Iran) once the war is over. Gilles finds himself having to invent a language he doesn't know, word by word. As the unusual relationship between the two men begins to incite jealousy and suspicion, Gilles becomes acutely aware that one false move could expose his swindle.

ONLY AVAILABILE TO VIEW IN ARIZONA

PAIRED WITH A SHORT FILM: ESCAPE FROM TREBLINKA: The Joseph Polonski Story
USA • 2021 • 27 minutes • English (Closed Captions available) • Director: Ken Winikur

This short will be introduced by Danielle Gross, a local Phoenix resident, and the loving granddaughter of Joseph Polonski.