Une langue universelle

Delivering on the promise of his shorts and his acclaimed feature debut THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, Matthew Rankin’s UNE LANGUE UNIVERSELLE is of the year’s singular delights. Set in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the film crafts a vision of the Canadian prairie city that is at once out of time and out of place, with Farsi as its inexplicable lingua franca. At the heart of the film is Matthew (Rankin himself), who has recently returned from Quebec to visit his ill, aging mother, though their reunion is but one element in a wider constellation of characters and subplots that unfold amidst the city’s blustery winter winds and concrete overpasses. While the work of Abbas Kiarostami remains an obvious lodestar here (particularly his script for Jafar Panahi’s 1995 BADKONAKE SEFID), his spirit beautifully evoked in the cadence and dialogue of the children characters, the film never settles into pastiche or homage and remains wholly Rankin’s own vision throughout. Absurd in moments, but in a way that never lessens its core pathos, the film balances different tones in almost miraculous fashion, offering a rare gem that manages to be smart, funny, beautiful and tender in equal measure. (Jesse Cumming) 

In the presence of Pirouz Nemati (production, script, acting).

Matthew Rankin: CATTLE CALL (2008, K), HYDRO-LÉVESQUE (2008, K), NEGATIVIPEG (2010, K), TABULA RASA (2012, K), MYNARSKI DEATH PLUMMET (2014, K), THE RADICAL EXPEDITIONS OF WALTER BOUDREAU (2015, K), THE TESLA WORLD LIGHT (2017, K), THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (2019), MUNICIPAL RELAXATION MODULE (2022, K)