PERSIAN LESSONS
O.V. in French, German and English subtitled in Spanish
Vadim Perelman (House of Sand and Fog) returns with a story where fable and inventiveness becomes (as in Life is Beautiful) a tool for survival. This is the story of Gilles, who in the France of 1942 is sent with other Jews to a concentration camp and manages to avoid death by saying that he is not Jewish but Persian. A tricky escape that complicates when a camp official asks him to teach him the Persian language, which Gilles will have to invent out of thin air. A friendship is born, but also a network of suspicions is raised.
Direction: Vadim Perelman
Script: Ilya Zofin
Cinematography: Vladislav Opelyants
Editing: Vessela Martschewski
Music: Evgueni Galperine
Sound: Boris Voyt
Cast: Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Lars Eidinger, Jonas Nay, Leonie Benesch, Alexander Beyer, David Schütter, Luisa-Celine Gaffron, Guiseppe Schillaci, Antonin Chalon, Mehdi Rahim-Silvioli
Production: Ilya Stewart, Murad Osmann, Pavel Burya, Ilya Zofin, Rauf Atamalibekov, Timur Bekmambetov, Vadim Perelman
Production Company: Hype Film, LM Media
Vadim Perelman
He was born in the Ukraine in 1963, and later became a Canadian-American citizen. He began his career directing advertisements and video clips. His debut film, House of Sand and Fog (2003, with Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly), was nominated for three American Academy Awards. His second film, The Life Before His Eyes (2006, with Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood), was also a literary adaptation. In addition, he works for leading television networks in the United States and Russia. His latest film Persian Lessons premiered at the Berlinale.