Films & Events

Blending surreal comedy with sharp cultural satire, Universal Language is a wildly inventive absurdist journey “somewhere between Tehran and Winnipeg.” This internationally acclaimed film weaves together the stories of Negin and Nazgol, who discover money frozen in ice; Massoud, a bewildered tour guide leading an even more confused group through Winnipeg; and Matthew (played by director Matthew Rankin himself), who abandons his bureaucratic job in the seceded government of Quebec to return home to visit his mother.

Premiering in the Directors’ Fortnight at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, the film went on to earn a spot in TIFF’s Canada’s Top Ten and was selected as Canada’s official entry for Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards. Named one of the Top 5 International Films of 2024 by the National Board of Review, Universal Language has been celebrated for its offbeat humor, striking visuals, and clever exploration of identity and displacement.

Don’t miss this one-night-only screening as part of our ReelTalk: Foreign Films series—where the absurd and the profound collide in one of the most original films of the year.

2024. 89 min.