When Persian language becomes controversial drama subject

Ukraine-born director Vadim Perelman has used Persian language as an influential theme in his controversial flick 'Persian Lessons'. 

The director who made the 2003 'House of Sand and Fog' with a less clear intention of demonizing immigrants and refugees, including Iranians living in the US, once again is at the helm of another controversial flick named 'Persian Lessons'.

 The helmer has seemingly a new agenda in his mind, with something precious about Iran -that is the Persian language- becoming one of the influencing themes in his new film premiered at 2020 Berlinale.

The flick puts together a narrative of Holocaust, the alleged genocide of Jews during the Second World War, which has been exploited by the West to oppress others.

What reveals the real intention of the director is that the Persian language becomes the title as well as the main part of this new movie's storyline. The flick is about a young Belgian Jew who avoids execution in a German concentration camp by pretending to be Persian, not Jewish.

The main character ends up teaching Farsi, a language he does not know, to a Nazi officer who dreams of opening a restaurant in Iran after the war.

The director invented the fake version of Persian spoken in the film in collaboration with a Russian linguist, developing a grammar and a 600-word dictionary.

Using a fake version of Persian in the socio-political drama seems to be a mockery and deception to tarnish Iran’s official language as precious heritage. However, the flick does not reveal much at first sight.

This production can be considered as an example of how cinema in the hands of the West strives to demonize other countries and it should be our undertaking to stay vigilant against such sinister plots.

AG/AG