I have just finished rewatching the film Persian Lessons. There is no actual Farsi/ Persian spoken, apart from at the very end. In fact, the whole film involves a suspension of disbelief. Set in a concentration camp, a small bedraggled man (we know him as Reza) finds ways to survive. He “teaches” Persian to one of the SS Officers, using the names of those arriving to be forced into hard labour and then murdered in the camp. The Officer, who was a chef in civilian life and only joined the Nazi party because of some chaps on the street who seemed to be having a good time, wants to go to Persia after the war to find his anti-fascist brother. In one scene, he recites a poem he has written in “Persian” about clouds going eastward.
The relationship between the two evolves during the film to more challenge by Reza. In one scene, the office refers to “the nameless hordes”. Reza responds: They are only nameless because you do not know their names”. In the end, Reza survives and is able to tell allied troops the names of those in the camp, memorised for his “Persian”, in a recital with all the relentlessness of Kaddish.
Behind the film’s deep reflection on language stands the insight of Primo Levi, reflecting as a survivor as witness to atrocity:
“had they even had pen and paper, they would not have been witness, because their death had started before even that of their body. Weeks, months before their extinction, they had already lost the ability to observe, remember, relate and express themselves. We speak in their stead, by proxy.” [1]
[1] Author’s translation from “anche se avessero avuto carta e penna, non avrebbero testimoniato, perché la loro morte era cominciata prima di quella corporale. Settimane e mesi prima di spegnersi avevano già perduto la virtù di osservare, ricordare, commisurare ed esprimersi. Parliamo noi in loro vece, per delega”. Primo Levi, I sommersi e I salvati (The drowned and the saved) (Einaudi, 1986)
This insight into the nature of interest in human rights remains to be grasped in UK judicial circles. It is far more than associational or representative interest.
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