Une langue universelle
Winter. Somewhere between Tehran and Winnipeg, Negin and Nazgol discover a large sum of money frozen deep in the ice on the sidewalk and try to find a way to extract it. Massoud leads a group of bewildered tourists on an increasingly absurd walking tour of Winnipeg’s landmarks and historical sites. Matthew quits his job with the Quebec government and embarks on a mysterious journey to visit his estranged mother. Time, geography, and identities intertwine, overlap, and collide in a surreal comedy of misdirection.
Structured like a Venn diagram—at the intersection of Jacques Tati’s humor and Abbas Kiarostami’s Koker Trilogy—A Universal Language is at once a film diary, an absurd urban symphony, and a deep dive into the emotions of the lockdown era. It explores the mysterious interzone where an individual ends and the rest of the world begins. A fleeting, half-remembered dream about home, loneliness, our responsibilities to others, and the wild turkeys that haunt us.
Official Selection / Directors’ Fortnight – Cannes Films Festival – 2024
Official Selection – TIFF- 2024