[Film] Persian Lessons

Watched on: 04/01/2024

Reviewed on: 04/07/2024

Director: Vadim Perelman

What left an impression on me about this movie was the omnipresent, never-ending fear, and the superficial calmness under the oppression of fear. When life is built upon a mountain of lies, and a single lie requires a pile of lies to maintain, it is truly tragic.

The protagonist's fear is manifested in occasional emotional outbursts, as well as in their nightly, sleep-induced murmurs of the language they invented, revealing his deep-seated terror. The officer also harbored their own fears, weaving several versions of a story as a means of escape. As a reader, I couldn't discern which story was the truth. And the more fearful they became, the calmer they appeared on the surface. The director's choice to express fear through a subdued and restrained approach evokes a deeper sense of sorrow in the viewer, as opposed to portraying fear through uncontrolled emotional outbursts.

There is a small character in the movie, a soldier who always wants to make life difficult for the protagonist, which is impressive. I am trying to figure out why -- it seems the protagonist didn't do anything bad to that soldier directly. It may be that the superior reprimanded him when he tried to prove that the protagonist was a Jew, which made him feel wronged, or it may be that he wanted to prove that he was right. But this detail is a vivid portrayal of human nature and some relationships.