Having had an incredibly well-received world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, Matthew Rankin (THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, CIFF 2019) returns to the festival with his second feature. By way of Jacques Tati and Abbas Kiarostami, UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE is at once a diary film, an absurdist city symphony and a welling-up of confinement-era emotion exploring the mysterious interzone where one person ends and the rest of the world begins.

Winter. Somewhere between Tehran and Winnipeg. Negin and Nazgol find a large sum of money frozen deep within the sidewalk ice and try to find a way to get it out. Massoud leads a group of befuddled tourists on an increasingly absurd walking tour of Winnipeg monuments and historic sites. Matthew leaves his job at the Québec government and embarks upon a mysterious journey to visit his estranged mother. Time, geography, and identities crossfade, interweave, and collide into a surreal comedy of misdirection.

Canada's submission to the Academy for Best International Feature.