Plot: 1942. Gilles, a young Belgian man, is arrested by the SS alongside other Jews and sent to a concentration camp in Germany. He narrowly avoids execution by swearing to the guards that he is not Jewish, but Persian. This lie temporarily saves him, but then Gilles is assigned a seemingly untenable mission: to teach Farsi to Koch, the officer in charge of the camp's kitchen, who dreams of opening a restaurant in Iran once the war is over. Gilles finds himself having to invent a language he doesn't know, word by word. As the unusual relationship between the two men begins to incite jealousy and suspicion, Gilles becomes acutely aware that one false move could expose his swindle.
Alternative Plot: Set in occupied France in 1942, Persian Lessons follows Gilles (Nahuel Pe?rez Biscayart), a Belgian Jew, who narrowly avoids sudden execution by swearing to the guards that he's Persian, not Jewish. While the lie temporarily saves him, Gilles is then assigned the extraordinary task of teaching Farsi, a language he doesn't know, to Koch (Lars Eidinger), the officer in charge of the camp's kitchen who dreams of opening a restaurant in Iran once the war is over. Through an inspired and clever deception, Giles not only manages to survive, but also devises an astonishing strategy to remember the names of his condemned brethren.
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