France, 1942. Following a raid by Nazi soldiers, a group of Jews are captured, including a young man named Gilles. To avoid certain death, he swears that he isn’t Jewish, but Persian. Though it sounds implausible, one of the soldiers spares him.  As luck would have it, the commander of the concentration camp they’re brought to is looking for a Persian teacher, planning to move to Tehran after the war and open a restaurant. Thus Gilles begins to teach the feared officer a language which he himself doesn’t know a word of…

This is the story of an outsider condemned to death who attempts to escape his fate with a seemingly far-fetched bluff. Its Ukrainian director provides a new perspective on the Holocaust, mingling drama, suspense, humour and cruelty with impressive balance. The audience’s sympathies are unequivocally aligned with the likeable, utterly determined “Persian teacher”, but they will also find themselves paradoxically absorbed by the fate of the cruel camp commander.