Gilles, a Belgian Jew, is arrested by the SS and narrowly avoids execution by swearing that he is not Jewish, but Persian. This lie temporarily saves him, but also traps him in an apparently-impossible job: teaching Farsi to Koch, the SS officer in charge of the camp's kitchen, who dreams of opening a restaurant in Iran once the war is over. To stay alive, Gilles must invent a language from scratch, word by word, while also navigating the daily tortures and terrors of the concentration camp. Persian Lessons is the latest film by Vadim Perelman, the director of the Oscar-nominated House of Sand and Fog.

Please register for the event. You will receive an email with a link to watch the film at home on Thursday , December 1. This link will only be available until our Zoom Q&A session on Monday, December 5 at 12:00pm EST with Vadim Perelman (director). You will receive a separate email with the Zoom link for the Q&A several days before the event.

If you have any questions, please email iijs@columbia.edu

Please note, at this time, only residents of the United States will be able to stream the film.

Supported by the generosity of the Radov Family.

This event will be on ZOOM.

While all Institute events are free and open to the public, we do encourage a suggested donation of $10.