Universal Language 

Une Langue Universelle / Universal Language 

Matthew Rankin, Canada, 2024, 89’ 

A funny and gently moving encounter between Canadian and Iranian cultures and cinemas that cradles the spirit and warms the heart. 

In a mysterious and surreal interzone somewhere between Tehran and Winnipeg, the lives of multiple characters interweave with each other in surprising ways. Gradeschoolers Negin and Nazgol find a sum of money frozen in the winter ice. Massoud leads a group of increasingly befuddled tourists through the historic sites of Winnipeg. Matthew quits his meaningless job in 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. 

“I encourage people to think of it as cinematic Venn diagram between Winnipeg, Tehran and Montréal. It’s like a confluence of rivers. Or a Hawaiian pizza. It’s a crazy duckbilled platypus of a movie: one part lonesome Québécois cinéma gris, one part surreal Winnipeg puzzle film, one part Kanoon-style Iranian poetic realism, all three of which reflect and refract through the prism of each other. Une langue universelle is not about any one of these places but about the métissage of all three. Of course, Iranian cinema emerges out of 1000 years of poetry while Canadian cinema emerges out of 40 years of discount furniture commercials. And yet that is the duality of our world, isn’t it?” – Matthew Rankin 

Matthew Rankin was born in Winnipeg and studied history. 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, Annecy, the Berlinale… His first feature, The Twentieth Century, was awarded the FIPRESCI Prize at the Berlin Film Festival and proclaimed Best Canadian First Feature at the 2019 TIFF.