Director Matthew Rankin ’s odyssey through a Winnipeg dotted with homages to Iranian film history — and featuring the coziest ...

Both a valentine to Iranian cinema and an absurdist look at Winnipeg, Canadian filmmaker Matthew Rankin's comedy is ...

Using real stories from the filmmaker’s life, he and his Iranian co-writers Ila Firouzabad and Pirouz Nemati create a world ...

We look at "Universal Language," a new movie that follows three storylines in a city that is a cross between Winnipeg and Tehran.

Universal Language” is delightfully absurdist, with little moments in each story that both make sense yet defy expectations.

Written and directed by director Matthew Rankin, the comedy presents a Persian-language-inflected Canada, getting at timely questions of homeland and belonging.

His “Universal Language” takes place in Winnipeg, Manitoba, but the culture is entirely Iranian. Farsi is the spoken tongue.

Matthew Rankin’s “Universal Language” takes place in Winnipeg, Manitoba, but the culture is entirely Iranian. No reason is ever stated for the fusion of Winnipeg reality and Iranian New Wave cinema.

Abbas Kiarostami wasn’t the first Iranian director to explore these binaries, often by using moviemaking itself as a ...

A lightly satirical and surrealist comedy imagines the snowy Canadian city in the style of the Iranian New Wave.

This time of year, we find ourselves in a lame-duck period on the movie calendar, with much of Hollywood’s energy directed ...

Matthew Rankin’s whimsical, cerebral comedy takes place in a version of the northern nation that is full of Iranian ...