REVIEW: ‘Universal Language’ Is An Exquisite Marriage Of Film Traditions

Universal Language (2025) (Une Langue Universelle), directed by Matthew Rankin and written by Ila Firouzabadi and Pirouz Nemati is a sensational marriage of film traditions. With deep influences from the French and Iranian New Waves mixed with a few American masters, the movie is equal parts a moving experience and a profound piece of art.

Rankin plays Matthew, who, through non-linear scenes, leaves Quebec for Winnipeg. Only, in Universal Language, Winnipeg is a predominantly Iranian version of itself in culture and language. It’s as if Tehran was always in central Canada. Tim Hortons is still essential to Canadian culture, but it’s focused on tea rather than coffee, and everything else about it is Persian.

But no summary could fully capture the intentionally incoherent and surreal nature of Universal Language. Similarly to a Wes Anderson production, the characters feel exaggerated, and the sets feel like dioramas. During scenes in Quebec, there are dramatic, sharp cuts back and forth from a given character’s perspective while they capture the experience of insignificant characters in their peripheries.

Universal Language is revelatory as it blends disparate, quirky parts.

In the most excellent example, a stark white office holds three men. Two are in conversation, itself a bit ridiculous and preparative, but the camera jumps sharply from over one’s shoulder to the other every few seconds as they speak back and forth. Only from one of their vantage points is it clear there is a third man in the room having an absolute breakdown in his own non-private cubicle. The moment provides necessary exposition, albeit out of chronological order, resulting in whiplashed confusion and odd delight all at once.

Invoking the style of the French New Wave to the extreme makes it so that when the film moves to Winnipeg, the softer fade transitions and homey sets feel markedly different. Matthew, the character and the director, clearly does not feel entirely at home in either world. The French-Canadian world is obtuse and uncomfortable, while the Iranian-Canadian world is no longer really his to return to.

It’s a genius invocation of the classic Iranian New Wave technique of blending fiction and reality. Rankin himself is not Iranian but merely a deep admirer of the film movement. He dreamed of studying film among the greats in Tehran and even did, briefly, before realizing he would not make it there as a Westerner. The personal saga is cleverly integrated into the film’s text without ever being explicit about it.

While Rankin, and by extension Matthew, represent somewhat of an outside-looking-in perspective, the movie is still entirely told in an authentic voice thanks to this clever blend of reality and fiction, and because Universal Language was written by and performed by Iranian artists.

Universal Language contemplates belonging and loneliness. 

Other characters overlap and intersect with Matthew’s journey. Chiefly, children are trying to recover money frozen under the icy ground, and a tour guide explains mundane yet intimate facts about his hometown. There’s great joy in watching each scene of the movie, even if they seem to have no correlation at first. The writing is charming, and the acting is even more so. Every scene feels lived in as if the frozen north has always been the heart of Persian culture.

As the seemingly disparate parts of Universal Language do come together, it’s revelatory. Moments that feel random at first click into place. Characters suddenly make sense, and what seemed somewhat strange earlier in the movie feels like it always made sense—that is, until the film reaches its final act.

The film’s tone is supported by natural lighting, which brings warmth to the frigid, concrete city. Golden hour shots and sunlight reflecting off even the coldest surfaces help elucidate Winnipeg’s hominess. The visuals need to feel like a warm hug, so when the heart of Universal Language is finally revealed, that hug turns into something icy and uncomfortable.

Ultimately, something happens that completely upends everything Universal Language (2025) seems to initially be saying about community, belonging, and homecoming. The movie doesn’t fully explain itself, leaving its interpretation wide open. The movie culminates in a striking finale about belonging and loneliness. It’s equal parts a warm embrace from a home you’ve left behind and a cold stare from a place that has never known you.

Universal Language (2025) is playing in select theaters February 14th.