Universal Language

According to Universal Language, an absurd and tipsy comedy, the two languages spoken in Winnipeg, Canada, the capital city of the prairie province of Manitoba, are Farsi and French. In this, his second deadpan feature, Matthew Rankin plays himself returning home from Montreal to this city where school lessons are taught in Persian and everyone seems happily Iranian rather than Canadian. Universal Language, influenced by Guy Maddin and Abbas Kiarostami, won the Audience Award at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight, was a highlight of the New York Film Festival, and is Canada’s entry for the International Oscars.