Universal Language
(Une Langue Universelle)

In this surreal vision of the not-too-distant-future, the official language of Canada is now Farsi. Against this oddball background, three slice-of-life stories emerge: Two young friends venture to retrieve money found frozen in a block of winter ice. A man quits his painfully bureaucratic government job and returns home. And a peculiar tour guide shows off some of Winnipeg’s dullest attractions to a group of discombobulated tourists. Taken together, these deadpan stories create a picture of life in the “heart of Canada” that’s both hilarious and heartwarming. Featuring masterful production design with an eye toward the absurd, director Matthew Rankin (The Twentieth Century) describes his second feature as “a love letter to Iranian cinema,” combining the soulfulness of Abbas Kiarostami with the visual whimsy of Wes Anderson to create an appealingly unusual odyssey.

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