This distinctly odd Canadian movie is a delightful deadpan comedy about the kindness of strangers, and as such a profound film about what constitutes home in a globalized age. In wintery Winnipeg, Massoud (cowriter Pirouz Nemati) conducts a sightseeing tour around the Beige District. Meanwhile two school friends try to find Nazgol’s lost specs in the snow, and Matthew (Matthew Rankin) arrives from Quebec to visit his mother. For reasons which remain obscure everyone here speaks Farsi, and the mise-en-scene will remind cinephiles of Iranian masters like Abbas Kiarostami. None of this should work, but the movie is both very funny and surprisingly poignant.
A gently funny, gently moving, slightly surrealist little comedy that’s aimed at two groups of people: Canadians, specifically but not exclusively those who know Winnipeg, and aficionados of Iranian cinema.
Alissa Wilkinson, New York Times
Universal Language is a magnificent film, one that feels warm and familiar even as we realize just how startlingly original it is.
Bilge Eberi, New York magazine
It’s a film whose magnificence sneaks up on you, delighting in plenty of clever silliness before hitting you with a succession of somber scenes that lay you flat.
Chase Hutchinson, The Wrap
Matthew Rankin
Rojina Esmaeili, Saba Vahedyousefi, Pirouz Nemati, Mani Soleymanlou, Matthew Rankin, Ila Firouzabadi
Canada
2024
In Farsi and French with English subtitles
Summit Award, VIFF; Chantal Akerman Audience Award, Directors’ Fortnight, Cannes; Best Canadian Discovery Award, TIFF
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Credits
Executive Producer
Pirouz Nemati, Ila Firouzabadi, Matthew Rankin, Dan Berger, Aaron Katz
Producer
Sylvain Corbeil
Screenwriter
Matthew Rankin, Pirouz Nemati, Ila Firouzabadi
Cinematography
Isabelle Stachtchenko
Editor
Xi Feng
Production Design
Louisa Schabas
Original Music
Amir Amiri, Christophe Lamarche-Ledoux
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