A fan favorite from the most recent St. Louis Jewish Film Festival is now opening in theaters around U.S. including one screen here in St. Louis. “Persian Lessons” directed by award-winning filmmaker Vadim Perelman (“House of Sand and Fog,” “The Life Before Her Eyes”) is a powerful dramatic World War II fable chronicling a desperate man’s narrow escape from execution by telling a lie that unravels in unexpected and tragic ways.

The film is opening Friday, June 16th at the Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema. The first showing is scheduled for 1:10 p.m., 4:15 p.m. and 7:10 p.m.

About the film

Set in occupied France, in 1942. Gilles (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) is arrested by SS soldiers alongside other Jews and sent to a camp in Germany. En route to the camp, he narrowly avoids sudden execution by swearing to the guards that he is not Jewish, but Persian. This lie temporarily saves him, as one of the soldiers’ superior officers is “looking for a Persian,” and has promised additional rations to the soldier who delivers.

Gilles is then assigned a literal life-or-death mission: to teach Farsi to the Head of Camp Koch (Lars Eidinger), 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. The unusual relationship between the two men sparks jealousy in other prisoners and particularly the SS guards towards Gilles. Meanwhile Koch’s suspicions grow every day, and Gilles struggles with the unfairness of his privileges compared to his fellow prisoners, while fighting to maintain his secret and survive.