Universal Language
Introverted Montreal civil servant Matthew decides to visit his ailing mother in Winnipeg. Once there, a very strange surprise awaits him: in the city, everyone suddenly turns out to speak Persian. Meanwhile, two sisters are looking for the banknote they had seen in a block of ice somewhere, because it will allow them to pay for a new pair of glasses for a classmate. Elsewhere, a group of disgruntled tourists are being led around by guide Massoud past a host of uninteresting sights.
In this absurd, surreal comedy, Canadian director Matthew Rankin pays tribute to the Iranian directors Abbas Kiarostami and Jafar Panahi, whom he admires so much, while at the same time recalling the work of Wes Anderson with this more than curious story. As the Iranian masters do so well, Rankin weaves dream and reality into a highly original whole, linking today's Winnipeg with 1990s Tehran. Rankin himself plays the role of Matthew.