The latest absurdist gem sitting behind the oh-so-frightening curtain of non-English cinema is Cannes Directors’ Fortnight: Audience Award winner Universal Language, directed by and starring Matthew Rankin. In Persian and French, the film lands us in the snow-laid streets of Winnipeg, starting off in the French immersion school attended by Nazgol (Saba Vahedyousefi), Negin (Rojina Esmaeili), and Omid (Sobhan Javadi), who loses his glasses – and kicks off our journey into the peculiar and intertwining lives of some charming characters.

Little would any cinemagoer know of the connection between a block of ice, a turkey, a tour guide and a man on a mission to reconnect with his old mother that comes to be by the film’s end, but once every molecule of a detail starts to pop up and link back to everything else, it’s mind blowing. With every loose end tied, it’s a very well-constructed film, with the air and wit of some of our most beloved absurdist pieces.

The cinematographer (Isabelle Stachtchenko) was breathing the delightfully whimsical air of Wes Anderson when shooting plentiful straight-on, symmetrical shots, pushing the film’s charm to the max. The rules of composition were toyed with, and often broken, shoving the point of focus into a corner of the screen, rather in the centre or along a line of thirds, like some filmmaking nerds will proclaim is the only way to go. This is seen in the impressive long opening shot outside the school; we witness a scene inside a classroom through a window at the edge of our field of view, and the effect is surreal. When done masterfully and not carelessly, a nice cinema rule-breaking can go a long way in making a stand-out film. Universal Language is one of those productions you can just tell was perfectly executed from the creators’ original vision. 

An imaginative story needs imaginative dialogue. A particular gem involves an old woman on a coach making her plea for the turkey next to her to be moved elsewhere, by detailing her life’s hardships: her son choked to death in a marshmallow eating competition, her husband was killed by a swarm of wasps – and to add insult to injury – her neighbours keep stealing her rhubarb. The humour is top notch, and the tour guide taking half a dozen reluctant followers on an underwhelming venture is probably the film’s best area for laughs, giving us several gags like the 30 minutes’ silence by a busy road for the founder of Manitoba, a planned re-enactment of the “Great Parallel Parking Incident of 1958”, and an empty fountain, that they only have a permit to stand around for 30 seconds. Pirouz Nemati as Massoud is hilarious in delivering his lines, living up to the wit-imbued writing. 

All the actors are so terrific, even the kids bring something believable to their characters. Being a comedy first and foremost, it almost surprises you when it’s stunning not just visually but in storytelling; the layers to the production interweave seamlessly just as the themes of the story. And just when you think it all couldn’t get any more connected, it’ll surprise you one more time. Massoud’s words to Matthew put it beautifully: “Just as the Assiniboine joins the Red River and together they flow into Lake Winnipeg, we are all connected, Agha.” 

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Written by Maddie Armstrong

Featured imge courtesy of Cannes Film Festival