Persian Lessons

A resourceful camp prisoner decides on the spot to impersonate a Persian to avoid being executed as a Jew in wartime France. Coincidence has it that one of the officers wants to learn Farsi, as he has the plan to move to Teheran after the war. Reza, as he now calls himself, teaches Klaus a completely invented language, which has the challenge for himself to also remember what he is "teaching". As a support he uses parts of the names of the camp inmates which he registers in a book as part of his job. There are scary moments when you think the scam will come out, but also it is funny to see how this smug officer is fooled. The film is gripping all the way long and of course you are curious how this will end for both of them. The actor portraying Reza is excellent, hung between being scared and needing to be convincing.