Special feature of 1905 film network The wind blows the clouds eastward,It is full of souls longing for peace;I know I will be happy — —In the distant place floating with the clouds … …This poem, which yearns for a peaceful place on the other side of the heart, appears in a very strange way in the movie.
The author of the poem is a German officer Koch. Although he was only a cook before joining the army, he was responsible for managing the logistics of Nazi concentration camps, but he was one of the core parts to maintain the operation of this killing machine. What is more ironic than his untimely ode to peace is the language that is the basis of creation — — A fake Persian made up by fake Persians.
Persian, which has never really been voiced, has become the main axis of the Persian class. Koch, who longed to reunite with his younger brother in Persia (formerly known as Iran) after the war, threw out the need to learn Persian, while Gilles, a Jew who got a Persian book by mistake, assumed Persian identity when he was dying, and was able to survive as a Persian teacher, even gaining the privilege of surpassing ordinary prisoners.
Gilles, who only knows the Persian pronunciation of the word "bam bam", tried his best to ensure that his identity would not be exposed — — Using the list of arrested Jews he came into contact with, he made a "Persian" that only belonged to him and Koch, using the names of his compatriots as the root words.
According to the director’s introduction at the Berlin premiere of the film, the text of the film is based on the novel of German writer Wolfgang Kohlhaase, and this seemingly absurd story has been heard by screenwriter Ilja Zofen since childhood. In order to meet the film’s strong setting of "creating language", the director and a linguistics professor even compiled a fake Persian dictionary containing nearly 600 words, and each "new" word corresponds to the name of a Nazi holocaust victim.
It’s easy to lie, but difficult to lie. Gilles, who always wants to survive, was suspected and beaten by Koch for making up new words with repeated roots. Fortunately, having written these new words into his subconscious, he won back Koch’s trust with a "Persian" call sign when he was seriously injured and dying — — What the Germans don’t know is that what he calls from the heart is the name that one compatriot can never erase, which is the evidence that they have survived and fought.
This is different from the idealized setting of the general concentration camp story expression, which makes people unable to help Italian movies. In that romantic work, which is completely saddled with happiness, the father plays a game-style password for his son who is not familiar with the world, so that every suffering in the concentration camp becomes a customs clearance password for his son to regain his freedom.
Language is also the anti-war password given by Persian class. Between Gilles, as a prisoner, and Koch, as a master, a "fabricated" language has become a link between their spiritual communication and even their status balance.
This narrative, which inspires the Nazi’s conscience through "skills" and even realizes the sublimation of human nature, has already become the mainstream of World War II movies with Jewish suffering memories.
Chopin’s nocturne, in which Chinese pianist Spearman was in tears, and the elegy in which Rachel, a female singer, was in full bloom in her misery, all inspired the Nazi officers’ call of humanity that had not yet collapsed in their hearts with artistic synaesthesia, and also gave a deep accusation for the group annihilation caused by war and extreme consciousness.
The teaching and learning mode in Persian class was also approximately presented in the middle of 2008. The film, which was adapted from the novel of the same name by German novelist Bernhard Schlink, traces the beauty of German teenager Micha reading famous works for illiterate woman Hannah with an unforgettable love affair, and all this beauty was annihilated by history when Hannah was tried as a guard of Auschwitz concentration camp.
Like many ordinary Germans in those days, Hannah, who just thought she was completing a national task or making a living, may not be aware of the evil that this "career" committed to mankind. The real "sin" that she has been ashamed to talk about all her life is her "illiteracy" status, even if hiding this fact is at the expense of taking on crimes that have nothing to do with her.
This "evil of mediocrity" is more thoroughly reflected in Koch, an officer in Persian class. He borrowed poems to show his heart to Gilstein, but he still could not understand the noble behavior that the latter would rather sacrifice himself than save his friend.
With this Persian learning trip that will eventually be revealed, Koch did not personally kill a Jew, but recorded the names of everyone who died in his register in language. With a selfish understanding of peace, maybe he won’t understand the blood and tears poured behind 2840 words in the end.
Under the direction of vadim perelman, a director who is good at transnational commercial production, Persian Course, with its compact rhythm and ups and downs, can be described as a synthesis of the essence of half the film history of World War II.
As a "Ukrainian-Canadian-American", it is not easy for Paellmann to present such a full-fledged work in a "dumb" way when dealing with plays written in Russian and then translated into English and distributed to actors in German. This shooting process is just in harmony with the communication mode created by the film.
When dealing with the crisis of "the arrival of the true Persians" that could have reversed Gankun, it can be said that the writing or shooting method that makes it disappear is bold. However, this also vaguely corresponds to the element that the film lacks slightly in the anti-war film sequence, that is, it does not set enough bedding and aftertaste for a series of strong plot coincidences, which seems to make the technique shine more than emotion in the face of such a deep historical tragedy.
Of course, every sad cry transmitted through images is a historical echo of reflection on the pain of war — — What’s more, it echoed 2840 times.
Observe today
Shadan (curator of China Film Archive):Persian class tells you that the film can leap over the Tower of Babel, and it is a work made up of world language and world civilization. I think it’s a metaphor, which tells you that in this movie, many civilizations have formed a dialogue and balance through a so-called fabricated language. (Shadan, curator of China Film Archive.)
Wu Zhiying (director of Today’s Film Review):What would you say about a German officer in World War II? Sinners, dogs, war machines? Persian class showed me a bad guy in the public view, who was closer to the "ordinary people", so I had a complicated and unspeakable emotion towards this officer like most viewers, which became my motivation to do this program well. The actor who plays a German military officer said in an interview that he is very cautious about movies about World War II, and he is very resistant to taking on descriptive movies because it is difficult to restore the truth. Fortunately, this movie is metaphorical. I hope our program can strip away the abstract things and interpret them for the public.
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