One might have to be proficient in esperanto like Canadian director Matthew Rankin to be able to construct such a charming and weird mishmash of languages as his tenderly funny second feature Universal Language. Even though the satirical comedy takes place in wintry Winnipeg, the script is mostly in farsi.
Two children, Negin and Nazgol, find a stash of money frozen in ice and wonder what to do with it. Masoud acts as a local tour guide for a group of confused tourists. Rankin himself plays Matthew, who quits his governmental job and travels from Quebec to visit his sick mother after a long absence. These separate episodes interweave into a beautiful, distinctive and timeless city portrait.
Like Rankin’s first feature The 20th Century, Universal Language is also an idiosyncratic directorial achievement: a combination of Iran-influenced portrayals of children (cf. e.g. Abbas Kiarostami) and modern Canada. The minimalism and absurdity of the narrative are far from gimmicks, rather natural expression apparently even arising from Rankin’s personal experiences.
Timo Malmi