Quirky comedy meets Iranian cinema in Matthew Rankin’s delightfully absurd Universal Language. Setting his film in a fictional Canada, where the national language is Farsi, Rankin combines elements from a variety of his influences, the most obvious ones being Kiarostami, Tati, and Wes Anderson, into something that is his own.
In this Winnipeg, there are graves on islands between highway interchanges. An abandoned mall is considered a site of historical importance and tourists are only allowed to spend 30 seconds there. A middle school kid wants to be the next Groucho Marx. A double double at Tim Hortons is two full cups of hot tea.
It is consistently funny and also quite moving after all its pieces come together.
