Universal Language

Canada | 2024 | Farsi/French | 89 min | Fantasy | DCP

Synopsis

In a mysterious and surreal interzone somewhere between Tehran and Winnipeg, the lives of multiple characters interweave with each other in surprising and mysterious ways. Gradeschoolers Negin and Nazgol find a sum of money frozen in the winter ice and try to claim it. Meanwhile, Massoud leads a group of increasingly befuddled tourists through the monuments and historic sites of Winnipeg. Matthew quits his meaningless job in a Québecois government office and sets out upon an enigmatic journey to visit his mother. Space, time and personal identities crossfade, interweave and echo into a surreal comedy of misdirection.

Credits

Director

Matthew Rankin was born in Winnipeg and studied history at McGill and Université Laval. As a young filmmaker, he travelled to Iran with the deluded hope of studying cinema with the great Iranian masters. While this naïve effort failed, Matthew is the director of some forty short animated, documentary and fiction films which have been presented at Sundance, SXSW, Annecy, TIFF, the Berlinale, Cannes Critics Week and on the Criterion Channel. His first feature, The Twentieth Century, was awarded the 2020 FIPRESCI Prize at the Berlin Film Festival and proclaimed Best Canadian First Feature at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. Matthew has variously worked as a commercial animator, editor, actor, Cornish Monkey Shed Cleaner and GT6 Media Officer for the Dominion Parks & Historic Sites of Canada. He is not entirely certain where he lives but is frequently spotted in Montréal.