DIRECTOR: Matthew Rankin
STARRING: Pirouz Nemati, Matthew Rankin, Rojina Esmaeili, Saba Vahedyousefi
RUNNING TIME: 1 hr 29 minutes
LANGUAGE: Farsi, French, English
In Winnipeg, Nazgol and Hossein try to help a classmate recover an Iranian banknote. At the same time, Matthew Rankin quits his job in Montreal to be closer to his family in Winnipeg, where he meets Massoud, a tour guide who also takes care of Rankin's mother.
***
Matthew Rankin’s movie sees the co-writer/director play himself alongside a Farsi and French speaking cast in an alternate universe where Winnipeg, Quebec and Tehran converge as one. The film premiered earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the directors' fortnight audience award.
As the appointed non-voting chair of the committee, Telefilm Canada organizes the annual pan-Canadian Selection Committee for Canada’s Oscar submission. The vote was determined by a group of industry organizations and guilds, as well as filmmakers and industry professionals appointed to represent organizations. Telefilm says Universal Language was selected as Canada’s choice from 26 films.
The film was produced by Sylvain Corbeil from Metafilms.
Universal Language is a comedic drama and it was filmed in Winnipeg and Montreal, Canada.
To check out all previous submissions for Canada, click HERE.
STARRING: Pirouz Nemati, Matthew Rankin, Rojina Esmaeili, Saba Vahedyousefi
RUNNING TIME: 1 hr 29 minutes
LANGUAGE: Farsi, French, English
In Winnipeg, Nazgol and Hossein try to help a classmate recover an Iranian banknote. At the same time, Matthew Rankin quits his job in Montreal to be closer to his family in Winnipeg, where he meets Massoud, a tour guide who also takes care of Rankin's mother.
***
Matthew Rankin’s movie sees the co-writer/director play himself alongside a Farsi and French speaking cast in an alternate universe where Winnipeg, Quebec and Tehran converge as one. The film premiered earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the directors' fortnight audience award.
As the appointed non-voting chair of the committee, Telefilm Canada organizes the annual pan-Canadian Selection Committee for Canada’s Oscar submission. The vote was determined by a group of industry organizations and guilds, as well as filmmakers and industry professionals appointed to represent organizations. Telefilm says Universal Language was selected as Canada’s choice from 26 films.
The film was produced by Sylvain Corbeil from Metafilms.
Universal Language is a comedic drama and it was filmed in Winnipeg and Montreal, Canada.
To check out all previous submissions for Canada, click HERE.
FILM REVIEW:
(This review contains spoilers.)
“We are all connected, agha.”
Matthew Rankin's Universal Language is a profoundly surreal and emotionally resonant film that blends autobiographical elements with a dreamlike, meta-realist narrative. Set in a parallel-universe Winnipeg where the locals speak Farsi and the aesthetic feels frozen in the 1980s, the film is a meditation on the interconnectedness of human experiences. Through deadpan humour, striking visuals, and a uniquely nostalgic atmosphere, Universal Language explores how personal identity, memory, and culture converge in surprising and poignant ways.
The film presents a range of characters, a compassionate tour guide, a frustrated French immersion teacher, a figure representing Rankin’s own fragmented identity, and two schoolgirls, whose lives intersect in Winnipeg. Although they come from different cultural and social backgrounds, their stories overlap through shared experiences in the city. These interconnections highlight how individual lives are never fully isolated but are shaped by the relationships and environments surrounding them.
The concept of integrated lives plays out both in the personal stories of the characters and the broader cultural and historical context they inhabit. Universal Language represents a broad concept of communication, connection, and shared experiences that transcends linguistic and cultural barriers. It suggests that beneath surface-level differences, there is a deeper, more universal form of understanding that unites people, whether through emotions, shared histories, or a common sense of humanity.
Visually, Universal Language is a feast for the eyes. Shot on 16mm film, it evokes a timeless, analog texture that feels both retro and modern. The film’s aesthetic choices, including its use of brutalist architecture, snow-covered landscapes, and pastel interiors, serve as a backdrop to its exploration of memory and history. The anachronistic design elements, like old computer stations and retro-futuristic décor, add to the film’s disorienting yet mesmerizing quality, as if the characters exist in a world suspended in time.
Universal Language is a bittersweet reflection on the human condition in the modern age. Rankin’s film is a testament to the power of cinema as a universal language that can bring people together, and can fill people with both hope and melancholy, reminding us of the beauty in recognizing ourselves in others. In an era of global communication, the film stands as a poignant reminder of the shared humanity that unites us all.
REVIEW: A-
(This review contains spoilers.)
“We are all connected, agha.”
Matthew Rankin's Universal Language is a profoundly surreal and emotionally resonant film that blends autobiographical elements with a dreamlike, meta-realist narrative. Set in a parallel-universe Winnipeg where the locals speak Farsi and the aesthetic feels frozen in the 1980s, the film is a meditation on the interconnectedness of human experiences. Through deadpan humour, striking visuals, and a uniquely nostalgic atmosphere, Universal Language explores how personal identity, memory, and culture converge in surprising and poignant ways.
The film presents a range of characters, a compassionate tour guide, a frustrated French immersion teacher, a figure representing Rankin’s own fragmented identity, and two schoolgirls, whose lives intersect in Winnipeg. Although they come from different cultural and social backgrounds, their stories overlap through shared experiences in the city. These interconnections highlight how individual lives are never fully isolated but are shaped by the relationships and environments surrounding them.
The concept of integrated lives plays out both in the personal stories of the characters and the broader cultural and historical context they inhabit. Universal Language represents a broad concept of communication, connection, and shared experiences that transcends linguistic and cultural barriers. It suggests that beneath surface-level differences, there is a deeper, more universal form of understanding that unites people, whether through emotions, shared histories, or a common sense of humanity.
Visually, Universal Language is a feast for the eyes. Shot on 16mm film, it evokes a timeless, analog texture that feels both retro and modern. The film’s aesthetic choices, including its use of brutalist architecture, snow-covered landscapes, and pastel interiors, serve as a backdrop to its exploration of memory and history. The anachronistic design elements, like old computer stations and retro-futuristic décor, add to the film’s disorienting yet mesmerizing quality, as if the characters exist in a world suspended in time.
Universal Language is a bittersweet reflection on the human condition in the modern age. Rankin’s film is a testament to the power of cinema as a universal language that can bring people together, and can fill people with both hope and melancholy, reminding us of the beauty in recognizing ourselves in others. In an era of global communication, the film stands as a poignant reminder of the shared humanity that unites us all.
REVIEW: A-
