In a wintery, Farsi-speaking city that’s equal measures Winnipeg and Tehran, three narratives converge. Schoolchildren Negin (Rojina Esmaeili) and Nazgol (Saba Vahedyousefi) are tormented by a considerable sum of cash that’s encased in Manitoban-grade ice. Meanwhile, Massoud (co-writer Pirouz Nemati) shepherds a group of confounded visitors to tourist attractions such as the Kleenex Repository and the brutalist Beige District. Finally, Matthew Rankin (the film’s director and co-writer) abandons soul-crushing bureaucratic life in Quebec to reunite with his mother in this peculiar prairie outpost. As these storylines become comically entangled, the concepts of space, time, and identity grow increasingly opaque.
On the heels of The Twentieth Century (an absurdist, expressionistic reimagining of William Lyon Mackenzie King’s origin story), Rankin dreams a sophomore feature that’s every bit as deliriously entertaining and visually inventive but possesses considerably more emotional weight. While indebted to the meta-realist work of Abbas Kiarostami and Jafar Panahi, Rankin’s humorous, poetic fable establishes him as a singular voice in international cinema and reminds us that Winnipeg is indeed a wonderland.
Chantal Akerman Audience Award, Directors’ Fortnight 2024
Sept 28 & 29: Q&A with director Matthew Rankin, writer/actor Pirouz Nemati and producer Catherine Boily
Media Partner
Rojina Esmaeili, Saba Vahedyousefi, Pirouz Nemati, Mani Soleymanlou, Matthew Rankin, Ila Firouzabadi
Canada
2024
In Farsi and French with English subtitles
Open to youth at International Village
At Fifth Avenue
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
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
Matthew Rankin
Matthew Rankin was born in Winnipeg and studied history at McGill and Université Laval. He is the director of some 40 short films and two features which have been presented at Sundance, SXSW, Annecy, TIFF, the Berlinale, Cannes Critics Week, Directors Fortnight, and on the Criterion Channel. His first feature, The Twentieth Century, was awarded the FIPRESCI prize of the international film critics at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival and the 2019 Best First Canadian Feature Award at TIFF. Universal Language, winner of the inaugural People’s Choice Award presented by the Chantal Akerman Foundation at the 2024 Cannes Directors Fortnight, is Matthew’s second feature. He lives in Montréal.
Filmography: The Twentieth Century (2019)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Road to Patagonia
A travelogue, an eco doc, an adventure movie and a love story, The Road to Patagonia chronicles filmmaker and ecologist Mayy Hannon's 50,000 km expedition from Alaska to the tip of Chile (via Vancouver Island), on motorbike, horse, and surfboard.
Sex
Two chimney sweeps living in heterosexual marriages find their views on sexuality and gender challenged by a series of unexpected events. In a set of sharply scripted conversations, both men confront heretofore unexplored aspects of their identity.
Love
This warm, thoughtful piece offers shrewd comic observations on modern dating as it trains a quizzical eye on the trysts of a female doctor, Marianne (Andrea Bræin Hovig), and her colleague, a gay male nurse, Tor (Tayo Cittadella Jacobsen).
3 Faces
Iranian filmmaker Panahi and actress Behnaz Jafari, both playing themselves, receive a video in which a distraught teenaged girl, whose acting dreams have been quashed appears to kill herself. Panahi and Jafari decide to investigate...
Dreams
The third installment in the Sex/Dreams/Love trilogy is another rich, absorbing tale. 17-year-old Johanne writes a confessional about her flirtation with a (female) teacher. But the writing is too good to stay private...