The Persian Lessons was adapted from a real historical event, which told an unusual friendship between Giles, a young Belgian Jew Giles, who pretended to be a Persian and Koch，who was a officer in the concentration camp.
《波斯语课》改编自历史真实事件，讲述了一个年轻的比利时犹太人吉尔斯——假扮成会波斯语的人，和集中营的军官科赫的一段不同寻常的友谊。
At the begin of the movie, Giles heard about that an German officer who called Koch wanted to learn Persian. In order to survive, he came up with a bold idea to pretend a person who can speak Persian. But actually he can’t speak Persian. So he created a new language with the names of the Jews in the concentration camp. At first, Koch didn’t trust him. But with time going by, he gradually began to trust Giles, treated him as a friend and want to saved his life. But not everything happened was good. One day, a real Persian came to the concentration camp. In order to cover up his real identity, Giles’ friends killed this poor man, which made Giles realized that the concentration camp was a scary place. With Germany's defeat in the World War II, a large number of Jews in concentration camps were executed. With the help of Koch, Giles could survived. And he remembered a lot of names who died in concentration camps. It's also evidence that the Nazis can't burn or destroy. When Koch used the fabricated Persian to pass customs inspection, he was arrested.
在电影的开头，吉尔斯听说一个叫科赫的德国军官想要学习波斯语，为了活命，吉尔斯萌生了一个大胆的想法：假装自己会说波斯语，但实际上他并不会。所以他用集中营中犹太人的名字自创了一门语言。刚开始，科赫并不信任他, 但随着时间的推移，他们之间的友谊和信任也逐渐加深。但是在集中营中也发生过不美好的事情，某天，一个真正的波斯人来到了集中营，为了不让吉尔斯暴露，吉尔斯的朋友们杀死了那个波斯人，也让吉尔斯从短暂的和平中醒来，意识到集中营仍然是一个黑暗的地方。在科赫的帮助下，吉尔斯得以生存下来，他自创的语言也让他记住了许多犹太人的名字, 这也是纳粹烧不掉毁不掉的罪证。而在战后科赫也因为“波斯语”被逮捕。
Unlike other films describing World War II, Persian Lessons revealed the dark life in the concentration camp from another angle. The black humor shown in the film is also a highlight. A key plot in the film was that Koch asked Giles to copy the list of prisoners in the concentration camp, which unexpectedly inspired the latter to make up words: the names of people, with a slight change, became "Persian". It was this plot that not only completely rationalizes the possibility of Professor Giles's "Persian Lessons", but also gives the film a strange and heavy color. But what really touched me was the last scene of the film. Koch, who learned "Persian", fled the concentration camp with Giles. The former was arrested for "Persian", which satisfied people's pleasure of being punished for Nazi criminal acts. After meeting the allies, the latter told the names of 2840 concentration camp victims by relying on those "Persian" words. Behind these names are the tragedies and sorrows of families, and also imply the cruelty of war. From this point of view, "Persian class" is a good film.
《波斯语课》和其他描写二战的电影不同，它从另一个角度揭示了集中营中的黑暗生活。影片中展示的黑色幽默也是一大亮点，影片里一个关键情节是：科赫让吉尔斯抄写集中营犯人的名册，意外让后者获得了编造单词的灵感——那一个个人名，稍加变化，就成了“波斯语”。正是这个情节，不但彻底合理化了吉尔斯教授“波斯语课”的可能性，还令影片蒙上了一层异样沉重的色彩。但真正令我感到触动的是影片的最后一幕，学成“波斯语”的科赫带着吉尔斯逃离集中营，前者因为“波斯语”而被捕，满足了人们对于纳粹因罪恶行径遭到惩罚的快感，后者在遇到盟军后依靠那些“波斯语”单词，讲述出了2840个集中营受害者的姓名，这一个个姓名的背后，是一个个家庭的悲剧与哀伤，也暗示了战争的残酷。由此观之，《波斯语课》不失为一部好电影。
Author: Shu Tianle
Date: August 7, 2021
