The movie

Universal Language (Previously Unreleased)

Comedy with a surreal twist from Canadian director Matthew Rankin (The Twentieth Century) that links today’s Winnipeg, Canada, to the Teheran of the 1990s. Wes Anderson meets Abbas Kiarostami in Rankin’s ode to Iranian cinema, deftly interweaving dream and reality.

Length: 89 min
Country:
Language spoken:
Language subtitles: Nederlands
Cast:
Director: Matthew Rankin
Release date: 2025-08-21

Description

Comedy with a surreal twist from Canadian director Matthew Rankin (The Twentieth Century) that links today’s Winnipeg, Canada, to the Teheran of the 1990s. Wes Anderson meets Abbas Kiarostami in Rankin’s ode to Iranian cinema, deftly interweaving dream and reality. Introverted government official Matthew (Matthew Rankin) leaves Montreal to visit his sick mother in Winnipeg. But does he actually arrive in the city of his birth? Because, when he gets there, it turns out everyone in the isolated Canadian metropolis is speaking Farsi. Matthew himself becomes embroiled in two children’s search for a missing pair of spectacles; in the meantime, guide Massoud leads a group of dismayed tourists around the monuments and historical sights of the city of ‘Winnipeg’.