By Marc S. Sanders
Writer/Director Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language is the selected Canadian submission for the 2024 Academy Awards consideration in the category of Best Foreign Language Film. Though the picture was shot on location in Quebec and Winnipeg, many of the characters are of Persian heritage in this absurdist piece that moves along three different trajectories before they all collide with one another.
I had the opportunity to see Universal Language at the 2024 AFI Film Festival. Rankin, who also leads one of the storylines, opens the film with brilliant comedy as an eighth-grade classroom of unruly children are quickly silenced by an angry teacher who blames his students for his own tardiness and then unleashes on a latecomer who is unable to read the blackboard because a turkey has supposedly run off with his eyeglasses. The child sincerely stands by this excuse. The humor of this introductory scene, which I only wish could have gone longer, relies on the outrageous over the top temper of the teacher and the melancholy response from the students. None of them seem to fear this guy. One of them is even daring enough to dress like his idol Groucho Marx complete with a prop cigar and the mannerisms, as he aspires to become a comedian. The teacher wraps up his frustration by sentencing the whole classroom to stand in the tiny closet at the back of the classroom until the boy is able to obtain a new pair of eyeglasses or at least gives up on his silly turkey story.
One classmate, Negin, and her sister Nazgol take the long walk home through the snow-covered paths and come upon a five hundred dollar Rubie bill that is buried under the ice. There is no way to get it out, but if they do, they can use the money to buy their classmate a new pair of glasses, and thus class can resume and they will be free of their closet detention. They’ll need something sharp to crack the ice like an axe, and so a search begins.
Elsewhere, Matthew (Matthew Rankin) quits his job with the Quebec government in possibly one of the funniest “I quit” scenes since Albert Brooks angrily stormed out of his boss’ office in Lost In America. Neither scene from each movie are remotely similar, but they are terribly hilarious. Rankin is so hilariously smart when he cuts from his perspective to that of the supervisor and the joke delivers on what is mounted on the background walls that mirror the greenish drab room. For an accompanying soundtrack, there is poor schlub hysterically crying within a cubicle. It’s the second of a series of great scenes within this picture. Anyway, Matthew opts to purchase a large bottle of sleeping pills, dispose of his wallet, passport and keys and board a bus to visit his mother who he has not seen for several years. Unexpected circumstances take place as this scenario moves forward.
Lastly, there is Massoud who is a tourist leader escorting a group on the most mundane and sublime journey through the locales of Quebec, such as a small patch of grass in the middle of a highway exit fork in the road. He encourages his group to stand for a thirty-minute moment of silence in front of a cemetery that is wedged within this area. Traffic speeds on by though.
Universal Language might have been a dystopian kind of setting in another filmmaker’s hands. However, Matthew Rankin prefers to draw inspiration from his own upbringing within Quebec and Winnipeg where the buildings are drab earthtones of tan, gray and brown, outlined in white from the snowfall that doesn’t seem to melt or the cold that never rises to a warmer temperature. I had a brief moment to speak with Mr. Rankin following the film, using my limited knowledge of French and then English. He told me that he has a deep appreciation for this kind of appearance that the Canadian towns offer. When I was in Quebec earlier this year, I witnessed the exact opposite actually, a town full of vibrancy and color.
Fortunately, Rankin found a story of absurdist, sometimes subtle, humor to emote the dullness of these people’s lives. People don’t really live like this, do they? Universal Language makes a convincing argument. So, I can’t be sure.
First Rankin and his cinematographer were wise to shoot the picture on what seems like 16mm film which adds a noticeably grainy layer to the picture. Rainbows and bright sunlight are not what delivers cheer to these people, and this looks like a movie you would find on your grandmother’s Zenith TV set from the 1970s. Then, there is an acceptance to how Massoud and the two sisters, Nagin and Nazgol, live within this realm where a Persian governance has taken over a Canadian province. No one complains or revolts, but there is no chance for a life of luxury among these inhabitants, only acceptance.
When the three stories finally intersect there is a realization to how they move on beyond the confinements of the film. Turkeys abound, the money is recovered, only to take on a new destiny. Something becomes of the missing eyeglasses and Matthew encounters a new development when he arrives at his childhood home.
Universal Language sort of works like three bedtime stories rolled into one. There are visual symbols and props to consider in addition to the principal players. Most significant to me is the fact that I do not believe there is one solitary answer or point that Rankin’s film offers. Much of the picture is left up to each individual viewer’s interpretation. For example, while my wife and I strongly appreciate the movie, we still had very different perceptions of the film’s conclusions in relation to the building storylines.
A film that is titled Universal Language only welcomes open minded discussion.
2 UNPAID MOVIE CRITICS!!!! 