There is little to connect the desert planet of Arrakis in Denis Villeneuve‘s Dune with the snow-covered streets and empty parking lots of Winnipeg, Manitoba as depicted in Matthew Rankin’s surreal comedy Universal Language. Except, of course, that both directors are Canadian — Villeneuve from Quebec, Rankin from Winnipeg — and that both find themselves in this season’s Oscar race.
Villenuve’s Dune: Part 2 is looking to repeat the awards success of the first feature in the franchise, which was nominated for 10 Oscars, and won six. Rankin, as the saying goes, would be honored just to be nominated. His new film is Canada’s official submission for best international feature, a section Villeneuve knows a thing or two about, having scored his first Oscar nom in the category back in 2011 for his French-language break-out Incendies.
Rankin’s absurdist comedy is set in an alternative Canada where Farsi, alongside French, is an official language and the culture is a mash-up of Persian tradition and the Great White North. Tim Hortons, the quintessential Canuck coffee and donuts chain, is reimagined as an Arabic tea lounge. Chickens run free across the snow. Two students find a 500-rial bill frozen in the ice and race around town for an axe to cut it free. Stylistically, Universal Language is located somewhere between the poetic realism of Iranian New Wave cinema — think Children of Heaven, The White Balloon, and Close-Up — and the surreal comic sensibilities of Rankin’s fellow Winnipeg filmmaker Guy Maddin (The Saddest Music in the World, Rumours).
Universal Language premiered in Cannes, where it won the first-ever Directors’ Fortnight audience award, and screened to critical and audience acclaim, at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year. Oscilloscope Laboratories, which handled Rankin’s first feature, The 20th Century (2019) is releasing Universal Language stateside.
In an exclusive for The Hollywood Reporter, produced by Oscilloscope, Villeneuve spoke to Rankin about Universal Language — “one of the most fresh and original movies I’ve seen in years, a pure cinematic gem” — about directing actors in Farsi, taking inspiration from both Abbas Kiarostami and Groucho Marx, and getting an award-worthy performance out of a turkey.
Check out their full conversation below.
Denis Villeneuve in conversation with Universal Language director Matthew Rankin.
English (US) ·