36/44
Canada’s official submission for Best International Feature Film; 97th Academy Awards 2025
An absurd triptych of seemingly unrelated stories finds a mysterious intersection in this tale set somewhere between Winnipeg and Tehran. These Eyes Written by Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings Performed by The Guess Who. From its cinematography and its usual search for symmetry, its static or traveling shots, and its pleasant aesthetic with a dreamy atmosphere that enhances the universality of the settings, to its story that revolves around the various characters as their lives intersect and the dialogue that animates it, sometimes politely, sometimes not.
A freelance tour guide with strange travel choices, etc
So much so, that the influence of Wes Anderson crosses Matthew Rankin’s features from beginning to end. As in Anderson’s films, Rankin is interested in exploring the reality of his film, a reality full of peculiarities that serve as fertile ground for comedy. An angry teacher yells at his students in class, one of whom claims that a turkey stole his glasses; another is dressed like Groucho Marx because he wants to be a comedian; and another as a fashionista.
Rankin’s skill is able to evoke the dreamlike fable of surrealism, but also an expressive introspective melancholy
With a comedy that consists of jealous, tasteless and dark humor, Une langue universelle manages to be funny every time it wants to be. There are many times when its events border on the absurd or surreal, contributing to the comedy that floats it, but never diminishing its goal of creating thought-provoking depth. Elements and sentiments that merge and give life to a special experience between places and times, reality and dreams.
The camera is sometimes static from a distance, watching their movement and how it affects their surroundings, rather than focusing on their faces and expressions with close-ups
For example, in the reality of the film, even though we’re in Canada, French, let alone English, seems like a second language, and Farsi is in its place. They can speak it, and the signs and billboards are written in it, making the result seem like something close but far, the known and the unknown, blending into a culturally and demographically blind new reality. In terms of cinematography, which is in many ways similar to Anderson’s film, more about framing and movement than color palette, there’s a constant desire to inhabit the spaces the characters are in.
And while we know these cities by name, the film’s setting and its demographic profile, unmatched to our knowledge, may be a reason to delve deeper into these spaces
It’s as if the place is as important as the characters to the story, and Rankin wants to make sure we delve into it like tourists from a foreign land.
