Persian Lessons

(2020-)

An injured American soldier is trapped behind German lines during the Battle of the Bulge.

In post-war London, Viv Pearce is dating Reggie and runs a dating bureau with Helen Giniver, who lives with her older lover, authoress Julia Standing. Viv's younger brother Duncan, a gay man made to feel ashamed of his orientation, has been in prison and is sought out by his ex-cell-mate, Robert Fraser, who served time as a conscientious objector and is now concerned for the young man's welfare. Viv encounters Kay Langrish, a wealthy, reclusive, butch lesbian and for both women this evokes memories of the period three years earlier (1944) when Kay was an heroic ambulance driver in a happy, loving relationship with Helen -- before Kay introduced her to her ex-lover Julia. At that time, Viv and Reggie are forced to procure the services of a dentist moonlighting as an abortionist. About to die from blood loss, and having been abandoned by Reggie, Kay saves her from prosecution by claiming she was a married woman who had miscarried. Three years before that (1941) Kay and Julia are still an item and Viv meets unhappily married soldier Reggie on a train. Kay pulls Helen from the wreckage of a bombed house, finding the innocent young woman she has always wanted to love and care for. We also learn the gruesome details of why Duncan was in prison, which follows a suicide pact with the boy he loved, in response to the war and the draft. As the scene returns to 1947 there are happier endings for some and optimist outlooks for others as they move forward.

This story, based on fact, is about movement of Danish Jews out of Denmark to neutral Sweden in 1940's.

An honorable and mysterious rogue, known as Hanzala, makes himself an enemy of the Emperor Kisra after he helps a fugitive king and princess in the desert.

A German youth eagerly enters World War I, but his enthusiasm wanes as he gets a firsthand view of the horror.

At the onset of WW2, a Polish actor's family and the Polish Resistance help the troupe of a theatre escape Poland and the invading Nazis.

A story of how a Swedish diplomat saved thousands of Hungarian Jews during the final months of World War II.

The life of a heroine. The life and work of Hella Wuolijoki. A poet, spy and millionaire, she turned into an internationally acclaimed businesswoman, politician and playwright, who collaborated with Europe's leading writers such as Bertolt Brecht and Maxim Gorky, but faced the harshness of a changing world as the Finnish, Soviet and British secret services focus on her life, family and work.

At a U.S. Army base in 1941 Hawaii, a pugilistic private is cruelly punished for refusing to join his unit's boxing team. Meanwhile, his commanding officer's wife and top NCO are indulging in a torrid love affair.

Confronted with a malevolent interrogator in a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp, a young Polish lieutenant fights for his life and the soul of his country.