DC Festival of Films from Iran

Schedule Of Events

Universal Language

This deadpan comedy takes place in an alternate reality in Winnipeg, Canada, where Persian and French are the official languages and street signs bear Perso-Arabic script. The eccentric, interlocking narratives burst at the seams with references to classic Iranian cinema of the '80s and '90s. Two schoolkids attempt to dislodge a 500 rial bill frozen in a block of ice (a plot straight out of Jafar Panahi’s The White Balloon). A teacher scolds his students in Persian and French (à la Abbas Kiarostami’s Where Is the Friend’s House?). An impassioned tour guide berates his bewildered charges into appreciating the “charms” of notoriously cold, beige, and boring Winnipeg. Universal Language won the inaugural Directors’ Fortnight Audience Award at the Cannes Film Festival and is Canada’s official Academy Awards entry. Of the film, Jordan Mintzer (The Hollywood Reporter) writes, “In his own very weird way [Rankin] manages to . . . turn an everyday place into something momentarily special-which is what all good movies are meant to do.”

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