‘Universal Language’ Director Matthew Rankin on Making a Comedy Without Borders for His Canadian Oscar Entry

variety.com:

Matthew Rankin thinks more of audiences than that. His new film, “Universal Language,” was selected by Canada as the country’s submission for the Oscars’ international feature category, but you’d be forgiven if you were unable to place it.

Set in an alternate Great White North where Tim Hortons coffee shops are Persian tea houses and the principal language is Farsi (but Quebec is still French, because of course it is), Rankin’s film gently imagines a world without cinematic borders: an absurdist but warm-hearted vision that has disoriented and delighted festival audiences since its premiere in the Director’s Fortnight section at Cannes. “As much as we don’t think of it as a political film, there is something radical to this gesture,” Rankin says on a Zoom call. “One thing that struck us is that Canadian viewers who might have very little knowledge of Iran, and Iranian viewers that might have very little knowledge of Canada, have both said to us that they find the film makes them feel nostalgic.

That’s something that we found really touching.” Rankin is calling from his native Winnipeg, seated next to his two friends and co-writers, Ila Firouzabadi and Pirouz Nemati. “Universal Language” was a decade-long project for the trio, with roots tracing back to Rankin and Nemati’s time shooting “propaganda films” for Canada’s national parks.

Drawing comparisons to other transnational oddities like Jim Jarmusch’s “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai” and Takeshi Kitano’s “Brother,” the trio see their own feature in the same tradition of fusing far-flung cinematic influences.