A Film titled ≪Persian Lessons≫ An English translation of 『ペルシャン・レッスン--戦場の教室』を観て

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　（Persian Lessons -- Russia, Germany, Belarus）

It has been a long time since I went to the cinema. This may be the first time since the Corona disaster began. The art world has also been hit hard by the Corona disaster, but recently I have been receiving frequent invitations to exhibitions of paintings, ceramics, calligraphy, and other art forms. I do not believe that the situation has completely recovered, but considering the enthusiasm of the organizers, I would like to visit the venues as much as possible. Just then, this movie caught my eye in a newspaper article. 　It is set in France at the end of World War II. A young Jewish man is captured by the Nazi SS and is taken into the woods to be shot to death, but by chance he escapes. On the way to the woods, the young man is given a Persian language book in exchange for a sandwich in a truck, which changes his fate. One of the German soldiers had been ordered by his superior to "find a Persian and bring him to me.” The young man, Gilles, with a quick wit, says that he is not a Jew, but a Persian, and claims that he has the book as proof. 　When Gilles learns that the SS officer who told the soldier to bring Persians to the camp intended that he learn Persian, Gilles teaches "false Persian" to the officer in charge of the camp kitchen in order to survive, even though he does not know Persian himself. Actually, my interest in watching this film was in how he came up with the "false Persian," but my interest somehow turned to how their "classroom" came to be. In fact, this officer had a brother in Tehran and had a dream to go there and open a German restaurant when the war was over. However, it gradually becomes clear that this idea itself is not viewed favorably in Germany under the Nazi regime. I couldn't help but feel pity and even admiration for the officer, who, despite his suspicions about Gilles's identity and occasional acts of violence, treated him as his own teacher and worked hard to memorize false Persian words and recite them with a happy expression on his face. The officer, however, escapes with Gilles as the Allied forces close in and the camp is about to be closed. The last scene of each of these two men is heartbreaking. When the officer arrives at the airport, he poses as a civilian and earnestly pleads in "Persian," the language he learned from Gilles, that he wants to go to Tehran. Meanwhile, Gilles, who has been taken into custody by the allied forces, is asked about the number of victims in the camps, and he drones on and on about each of the thousands of people who were killed. The "false Persian" words were created from the names of each one of them, and they were connected to the "meanings" he saw in their individual faces. 　What I admire in European films is the natural use of French, German, and other languages by the actors. In this film, Italian and a little English also appear. It may be enough to say that this is such a language and cultural area, but I think there is a lot to "feel and gain" just by seeing such a scene. Translated with DeepL (15th January 2023)