Universal Language

Une langue universelle

TIFF65: Greek Premiere
In a mysterious and surreal interzone somewhere between Tehran and Winnipeg, the lives of multiple characters interweave with each other in surprising and mysterious ways. Gradeschoolers Negin and Nazgol find a sum of money frozen in the winter ice and try to claim it. Meanwhile, Massoud leads a group of increasingly-befuddled tourists through the monuments and historic sites of Winnipeg. Matthew quits his meaningless job in a Québecois government office and sets out upon an enigmatic journey to visit his mother. Space, time and personal identities crossfade, interweave, and echo into a surreal comedy of misdirection.
Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.

Direction: Matthew Rankin
Script: Matthew Rankin, Pirouz Nemati, Ila Firouzabadi
Cinematography: Isabelle Stachtchenko
Editing: Xi Feng
Sound: Sacha Ratcliffe, Bernard Gariépy Strobl
Music: Amir Amiri, Christophe Lamarche-Ledoux
Actors: Rojina Esmaeili, Saba Vahedyousefi, Sobhan Javadi, Pirouz Nemati, Matthew Rankin, Mani Soleymanlou, Danielle Fichaud
Production: Metafilms
Producers: Sylvain Corbeil
Costumes: Negar Nemati
Production Design: Louisa Schabas
Executive producer: Pirouz Nemati, Ila Firouzabadi, Daniel Berger, Aaron Katz, Matthew Rankin
Make Up: Marie Salvado
Format: DCP
Color: Color
Production Country: Canada
Production Year: 2024
Duration: 89'
Contact: Best Friend Forever
Awards/Distinctions: Directors' Fortnight Audience Award – Cannes Film Festival (2024), Bright Horizons Award – Melbourne International Film Festival (2024), Best Canadian Discovery Award - Toronto International Film Festival (2024)

Matthew Rankin

Matthew Rankin was born in Winnipeg and studied history at McGill and Université Laval. As a young filmmaker, he travelled to Iran with the deluded hope of studying cinema with the great Iranian masters. While this naïve effort failed, Matthew is the director of some forty short animated, documentary and fiction films which have been presented at Sundance, SXSW, Annecy, TIFF, the Berlinale, Cannes Critics Week and on the Criterion Channel. His first feature, The Twentieth Century, was awarded the 2020 FIPRESCI Prize at the Berlin Film Festival and proclaimed Best Canadian First Feature at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. Matthew has variously worked as a commercial animator, editor, actor, Cornish Monkey Shed Cleaner and GT6 Media Officer for the Dominion Parks & Historic Sites of Canada. He is not entirely certain where he lives but is frequently spotted in Montréal.

Filmography

2006 Où est Maurice? (short)
2008 I Dream of Driftwood (short)
2010 Negativipeg (short)
2012 Tabula Rasa (short)
2017 The Tesla World Light (short)
2019 The Twentieth Century
2024 Universal Language