Universal Language
“An Oscar-Worthy Delight”
— COLLIDER
“…Full of Memorable Images…”
— THE FILM STAGE
“Formally Precise and Very Funny”
— FILMMAKER MAGAZINE
Playing: Sunday, February 23rd, 7:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.
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.
“A magnificent film, one that feels warm and familiar even as we realize just how startlingly original it is.”
— VULTURE
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Canada
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Matthew Rankin
Pirouz Nemati
Amir Amiri
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Due to differing sensitivities from person to person, the MEFF does not usually provide subject matter trigger advisories for their films. In addition to the content on our website about the film, further age-appropriateness information for particular films can be found on IMDb as well as through internet searches.
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Academy Awards Shortlist (2025)
Directors Fortnight Audience Award - Cannes Film Festival (2024)
Best Canadian Discovery Award - Toronto International Film Festival (2024)
The Filmmaker
Matthew Rankin was born in Winnipeg and studied history at McGill and Université Laval. As a young filmmaker, he traveled 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.
