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“In the Canadian cities of Montreal and Winnipeg, a futile tension exists between French and English speakers — doubly silly, since the country is officially bilingual. In his gently satirical Universal Language writer-director Matthew Rankin imagines a rather fanciful solution, where Farsi is now the region’s dominant tongue. Taking his cues from such Iranian classics as Children of Heaven and The White Balloon, Rankin mixes the humanism of Majid Majidi, Jafar Panahi, et al with his own peculiar brand of comedy, offering a delightful cross-cultural hybrid designed to celebrate our differences.”

– Peter Debruge, Variety

“Two kids discover a bank note frozen in a block of ice, which they hope to retrieve to buy their classmates a new pair of glasses. A tour guide brings befuddled visitors on a walking tour of the city’s modest environs. A melancholy man (Rankin, in an autobiographical role) returns home from Montreal to reunite with his family after many years. Imagining a city in which Farsi is the predominant language, Rankin’s visually and narratively inventive film was inspired by Iranian films of the 1970s, frequently humanistic children’s fables, in this case transferred to a world of beige, concrete brutalist buildings and increasingly surreal, Tati-esque humor. Winner of the Directors’ Fortnight Audience Award at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.”

– New York Film Festival 2024