The new film by Montrealer Matthew Rankin, A universal languagewas selected at 77e Cannes Festival, as part of the Cinematographers’ Fortnight, a parallel section which unveiled its programming on Tuesday morning.
The 43-year-old filmmaker plays himself in this surreal comedy in French and Persian, which also features Quebec actor and playwright Mani Soleymanlou, the film’s co-writers, Pirouz Nemati and Ila Firouzabadi – also originally from Montreal Iranian –, Danielle Fichaud, as well as young beginning actors Rojina Esmaeili, Saba Vahedyusefi and Sobhan Javadi.
“The Fortnight is a section that has always attracted me. It is independent and punk rock, which fits well with the identity of the film,” confides Matthew Rankin in an interview, visibly delighted with this second Cannes selection. In 2017, his short film Tesla: World Lightan abstract and surreal film about the inventor Nikola Tesla, was presented at Critics’ Week, another parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival.
Rankin’s first feature film, The twentieth centurya delirious biographical satire on former Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King (with notably Catherine Laurent and Mikhaïl Ahooja), won the Critics’ Prize in the Forum section of the Berlin Festival in 2020, after its premiere at the International Film Festival. Toronto film.
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Matthew Rankin’s new feature film, A universal languagewill be presented at the Cannes Film Festival during the Cinematographers’ Fortnight.
As in his previous films, with their very particular atmosphere, we can expect a scenario which exudes absurd humor and which blurs the spatio-temporal lines. Two students, Negin and Nazgol, find an Iranian banknote frozen in ice and look for a way to extract it. For his part, Massoud guides a group of confused tourists through Winnipeg’s increasingly absurd monuments and historical sites. As for Matthew, he abandons his job with the Quebec government and takes a mysterious trip to visit his mother.
“The film is described as a Venne diagram of the cinematic codes of Winnipeg, Quebec and Iran,” says Matthew Rankin, who grew up in Winnipeg before completing a master’s degree in Quebec history at Laval University. We find the melancholic solitude of Quebec, the delirious madness of Winnipeg and the poetry of Iranian cinema. This is the prism through which the story is told. »
The plot of the children trying to recover a stuck note is obviously reminiscent of The white ball by Jafar Panahi, whose screenplay is by Abbas Kiarostami, two legendary Iranian filmmakers to whom Rankin wanted to pay homage. But the germ of the scenarioA universal language was inspired by Matthew Rankin’s grandmother, who told him about finding a $2 bill under the ice in Winnipeg during the Great Depression.
“I transformed my grandmother’s story, which is only the starting point, by taking inspiration from the films of the Kanoon Institute,” he says, evoking the creative laboratory which notably allowed Kiarostami to direct Where is my friend’s house ? “This film is an expression of my friendship with Pirouz and Ila,” adds Rankin, who evokes an “intercultural shoot” where experimentation and improvisation were in the spotlight. “These are my own idealist and internationalist desires, expressed through my Quebec identity, but the approach is collective. »
“We had a lot of fun doing this together,” says co-writer Ila Firouzabadi. It was an extraordinary moment. And it’s really nice for us to see a Quebec filmmaker, born in Winnipeg, speak Farsi so well in a film! »
Because yes, Matthew Rankin also speaks Persian… “I can manage! he said without false modesty. I understand it, I can read and write it, but I’m not eloquent! In any case, I learned that in France, the entire film was going to be subtitled, which includes the dialogues in French…”
The Cannes Film Festival will take place from May 14 to 25. The Press will be on site.