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Review: Universal Language (2024)
Have you ever seen magic on the big screen? That is the closest sentiment to what it was like watching Matthew Rankin’s “Universal Language” at our local independent cinema. I sat down and was instantly transported to Winnipeg, Manitoba, but not just any Winnipeg - an ethereal Winnipeg where everyone is Persian and speaks Farsi, turkeys run wild and win beauty pageants, and Tim Hortons’ “double double” is tea and sugar cubes served from a traditional samovar - a large metal container used to heat water in many parts of Asia.
We follow several stories in the film: two sisters go to great lengths to unfreeze some money from a block of ice, a man named Mathieu makes the journey from Montréal to Winnipeg where he grew up, and a man named Massoud leads a rather depressing tour of Winnipeg. These stories lead us through a tapestry of whimsical settings, ranging from a flower shop filled with signs advising customers to speak softly to not disturb the flowers to an unusual senior’s facility to a tissue box factory.
What was particularly touching was watching Mathieu’s journey as he discovers his former home and the way things have both changed and stayed the same. As a Persian woman who immigrated to Vancouver when I was five, currently living in Edmonton, this honestly felt like a love letter to Persian-Canadians like me for whom home IS a mishmash of Iran and our respective Canadian cities, and it spoke to fears that all of us have to varying degrees. If I leave home, will I be forgotten? Will my memories of my childhood, living in a different place, speaking a different language, eventually vanish into the air, like condensation from exhaling outside in the Winnipeg winter?
While I certainly expected the enchanting and emotional aspects of this film that were evident in the trailer - what I didn’t expect was the comedy! It was hilarious, and not just one or two funny jokes, it was all throughout a riot, especially as it played on some Persian stereotypes of us being overly-welcoming, money and status-obsessed, and cry-babies. One of my favourite lines was during the Winnipeg tour where former Canadian resistance leader Louis Riel was being discussed and one person asks - “now, what kind of salary did he make as a revolutionary?”
The cinematography was beautiful and stunningly reminiscent of Wes Anderson. The many, many wide shots of people walking through snowbanks besides highways was the most beautiful depiction of the prairies I’ve seen in a long time. Also very fitting was how my friend and I walked home from the cinema in -20 degree C weather afterwards.
Overall, I haven’t felt like that while watching a movie in a long time: instantly transported, deeply understood, every scene pulling me a little deeper into this mystical world that was so familiar yet bizarre at the same time. My favourite film so far this year - a big 5/5.
