Persian Lessons focuses less on a parade of unspeakable violence, which we are all aware of, and more on the victim’s survivor’s guilt, the victimiser’s murderous self-delusion, and the muddied waters of the human relationship between the two.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 23, 2024

The war drama could have been powerful and human, but too much distracts from the central narrative.

| Jun 23, 2023

Not a great film, but in many ways extraordinary, unpredictable, and memorable.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 21, 2023

It's a compelling plot and even though there are some questionable personality changes with key characters, Persian Lessons is an intense drama with a great ending.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 14, 2023

It took a little bit to worm into me, but I was happy it did.

| Jun 13, 2023

That it ultimately manages to work as effectively as it does is a credit to the firm, focused visual grip of director [Vadim] Perelman.

| Jun 12, 2023

The movie is much more compelling as a parable of communication and remembrance than as a realistic account of survival in a Nazi concentration camp.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 12, 2023

For Biscayart, it’s the sound equivalent of a masterful silent-film performance, and for Perelman, it’s the welcome return of an important filmmaker.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 11, 2023

It’s an old-school period piece that’s likely to please traditional arthouse audiences, but it sometimes drifts towards a feel-good narrative that can feel tone deaf when you consider the horrific backdrop of WWII.

| Original Score: B- | Jun 9, 2023

A contrived triumph-of-the-human-spirit narrative where the Jewish character at the center is rendered a cipher for suffering while his Nazi tormentors are unconsciously humanized.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jun 9, 2023

Eidinger, an expert prima donna, brings out the tragic absurdity of men who blindly follow orders. His performance anchors the film’s otherwise clumsy tonal shifts.

| Jun 8, 2023

Well made and well acted but Ilja Zofin's script is filled with well-trodden World War II tropes, and the longer this improbable parable goes on, the less convincingly it holds up.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 3, 2021

It does feel like a packaged story, like a melodrama...it is played very well, with those two performances actually working surprisingly well...

| Jan 29, 2021

The ending's a tear-jerker, but it's too little too late.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 26, 2021

This fable about language and memory is a troublingly easy watch - though it floored me in the devastating final moments, unexpectedly acquiring great depth and seriousness of purpose.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 19, 2021

Impressive ending and acting, though it has a wobbly handle on its characters.

| Mar 5, 2020

The movie feels fraudulent, almost farcical at times, presenting an untenable premise and using it to rehash generic stereotypes about Germans, Jews and an event that claimed the lives of so many.

| Feb 23, 2020