UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE - a wild Winnipeg/Tehran surreal comedy, one of the year's most original indie movies

Mar 11 thru 13
Tue to Thu 4:30, 6:30pm
Dir. Matthew Rankin - 2024 - 89m - Canada - In Persian, French & English with English subtitles - Valid for Punch Cards
Winner of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival inaugural Audience Award in the Director's Fortnight section!
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.
"Might be the best picture I’ve seen at Cannes." - Bilge Ebiri, New York and Vulture
"A wildly creative exercise in prairie surrealism that offers a hopeful alternative vision to the anxious political moment. " - Liam Lacey, Original Cin
"A gently funny, gently moving, slightly surrealist little comedy that’s aimed at two groups of people: Canadians, specifically but not exclusively those who know Winnipeg, and aficionados of Iranian cinema." - Alissa Wilkinson, New York Times