He predicted exactly what would happen to Putin.

Now he is warning the Jews of a second beacon

The Holocaust film "Lessons in Persian" presents an incredible survival story also relative to everything we have already heard and seen.

Its director, Vadim Perlman, explains why, as a Jew, it was important for him to present the Nazis as human beings and why he was not willing to accept instructions from Claude Lantzman

Avner Shavit, Berlin

16/06/2022

Thursday, 16 June 2022, 01:58

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From the movie "Lessons in Persian" (Lev Cinema)

Also relative to everything we have already read and seen about the Holocaust, the film "Lessons in Persian" presents a hair-raising story: the experiences of a Belgian Jew named Jill, who was sent to camps in 1942, hides his true identity and pretends to be Persian.

This attracts the attention of one of the senior members of the camp, worthy of an affinity between the Nazis and the Iranians at the time, dreams of moving to Iran at the end of the war and opening a restaurant there, and to that end seeks to learn the language.

As the film implies, the impostor becomes a Nazi Persian teacher, but of course he does not speak a word of that language, and is required to invent a new language from scratch and do so convincingly, because in camps every little mistake costs prisoners their lives.

Is this a fictional tale, or does it have a grip on reality?

Vadim Perlman, the film's director, goes on the attack as soon as the question arises.

"This question again?", He resents in an interview with Walla!

Culture after the premiere of "Lessons in Persian" at the Berlin Festival.

"It's explicitly written 'inspired by real events' at first. It doesn't say 'based on a true story' or anything like that. The things you see in the film did not happen one by one, but they are based on things that happened in the camps. Anyway, I did not write the script."

The screenplay was written by Ilya Zopin, based on a short and forgotten short story that Wolfgang Kohlhasa published in East Germany in 1952.

"One thing is for sure: it is not unreasonable to think that the plot of the film could have taken place in reality," Perlman concludes.

"There were a lot of incredible stories in the camps: stories of survival, of love between prisoners, of friendships between prisoners and Nazis. Anything can happen."

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To the full article

"The most important thing in the film is the humanization of the Nazis."

Director Vadim Perlman (right) with actor Lars Edinger after the premiere of "Lessons in Persian" at the Berlin 2020 Festival (Photo: GettyImages, Matthias Nariak)

Unlike many filmmakers, and despite the sensitivity of the issue, Perlman is not a diplomat, and answers decisively and bluntly.

The interview takes place with a small group of journalists from across Europe.

One of them is reminiscent of Claude Lantzman's statement that cinema cannot reconstruct the past, and pretend to present what happened in the Holocaust in real time.

"So what? Who is Claude Lantzman to decide?", The filmmaker declares.

"He did 'Holocaust,' it's a masterpiece, but then what if he said that? You'll see 'Son of Saul.' It's a film about what happened in the camps, and it's amazing."

Even if he does not wrap his words in honey, it is worth listening to Perlman.

The departure of "Persian lessons" has been significantly delayed for us because of the corona.

The film was screened at the Berlin Film Festival as early as the winter of 2020, just before the outbreak of the plague.

The interview was conducted even then, and it is interesting in retrospect to go back and hear what the director said at the time about Putin - "Not far off is the day when a country will feel humiliated, and then a populist leader will rise with national pride and take it to a dangerous place."

"Putin is doing this, and the world needs to be careful of it."

The persecution of Jews and Russian nationalism are intertwined with Perlman's biography.

According to his colleague Stephen Applebaum in an interview with the Jewish Chronicle, his grandmother fled Kiev in 1941, and gave birth to his mother on a train he tried from the city, a few weeks before the Nazis took over.

His family returned to the city after the war, but suffered exclusion and oppression due to its origins.

"Because we were Jews, we had the status of lepers," he said.

Perlman was born in Kiev in 1963.

At the age of nine his father died in a car accident, and shortly after the bar mitzvah, he and his mother received permission to leave the Soviet Union.

At first, the mother considered immigrating to Israel, but after losing her partner, she did not want to send her son to the IDF, risking his own loss.

Eventually, Perlman came to Canada. He studied film there, and developed a successful career as a video and commercial director In 2003, he directed his first feature film - a powerful, moving and memorable drama called "House of Sand and Fog" starring Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Conley, which was nominated for three Oscars. And the filmmaker always wanted to close another circle and deal with the Holocaust as well.The original plan was to bring to the canvas the book "The Wounded Bird," but the project eventually passed to another director, and Perlman took over "Lessons in Persian."

The language invented in the film, Perlman wrote with the help of a Russian philologist, is based on the names of French Jewish prisoners murdered in Auschwitz.

"In this way, the language becomes a kind of monument to the memory of the murdered, and the film becomes more than a survival story. If it did not have that element in it, it would not be interesting to me."

It is unbelievable that it will be told.

From "Lessons in Persian" (Photo: Lev Cinema)

The film was applauded at the Berlin Film Festival and any other festival subsequently screened, and was disqualified from the international category race only for technical reasons - Belarus submitted it on its behalf because it participated in its production, but the American Academy ruled that it did not have enough Belarusian involvement.

Despite its heavy theme, the screening at the Berlin Film Festival was accompanied not only by applause and tears, but also bursts of laughter.

Some of them were related to one of the plot lines - intrigues and discussions concerning the modest volume of the penis of one of the Nazi officials in the camp.

Some are related to other elements, which you will already discover for yourself.

"It surprised me," Pearlman admits.

"I watched the laughs in everything related to genitals in advance, but everything else? It came as a surprise to me. Maybe you can explain to me why it made the audience laugh. I remember there was a burst of laughter at the beginning, when the Nazi asks how to say 'restaurant' in Persian, and the Jew answers "He has an answer that is clear to us because it is complete nonsense. Maybe it's funny to the audience because you know the Nazi falls into the trap, but the Nazi himself does not know it. We are part of the ploy, and we are glad it works."

"In general, you never know how a movie will work and how it will be received. If there was a formula, we would all work according to it and all the movies were blockbusters, but they were all boring too, because they were the same thing."

"No. I'm a Jew myself. Laughing at the Holocaust? There's no greater shame for us. I knew there was no way the film would be disrespectful. 'JoJo Rabbit,' on the other hand, crosses the line in my opinion.

"I watched the laughter about the penis. The rest came as a surprise to me."

From "Lessons in Persian" (Photo: Lev Cinema)

As usual with Perlman, he works with great players.

The Nazi is played by Lars Edinger and the Jew who teaches him "Persian" is played by Nahuel Perez-Biscart, who broke out in "120 beats per minute" and "see you up there" and became one of the youngest young actors in France.

"He does not look Jewish, but he is perfect for the job," says Pearlman.

"There is an extraordinary power in his eyes. It was important to him to shape the hero as a hero, not as some whining victim."

"To me, ninety percent of a director's job is casting," he continues.

"What's important is to cast the right actor. From then on, you have to let him go quietly. After I did 'House of Sand and Mist,' I was constantly asked what it's like to direct Ben Kingsley. You're not directing Ben Kingsley. You leave him alone. He knows the work better than you.

But there is no need for that.

I'm not a director who answers actors. "

Everything except a diplomat.

Director Vadim Perlman (Photo: Lev Cinema)

I understand of course why the Holocaust heritage is important to you, but why was it important for you to make a film about it?

"It's important to me to make movies, because what do we have left but art? That's the only hope. Look what's going on in the world. My second feature film, 'Life Before Her Eyes'', was about a shooting attack at a school in the United States. "Every week. Terrorist attacks happen all the time everywhere. The Internet is a great tool and can be used for good, but we misuse it and make the situation even worse. So what's left? Movies."

"That the Holocaust was the work of human beings. For me, the most important thing in my film is the humanization of the Nazis. In many films, they are robots that fulfill instructions. When you fill them with humanity, and show that they had human feelings like jealousy and love, it makes what they did terrible. Even more. You understand that if people have done something like this in the past, maybe they will do it in the future. We say 'never again', but there can be no guarantee that the Holocaust will not happen again. It can happen again, I just do not know where, and do not know "Who will they hate this time? Maybe the Jews again, because we are the classic victims."

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