19.12.24, 20:30, Universal Language (2024)

Inspired by the Persian tradition of Yaldā, we celebrate the shortening of the nights and the lengthening of the days for the fourth year in a row with Kuleshov, Urgent.fm's film programme. This time, we celebrate the transition from darkness to light with the delightfully absurdist and highly unique Universal Language.

The film depicts an alternative world in which Canada and Iran are intertwined as the lives of the film's characters. In Winnipeg, where Farsi is the main language alongside French, guide Massoud leads a confused tour group around, ex-officer Matthew returns to visit his mother and two schoolchildren find a bank note frozen in ice.

‘A confluence of rivers,’ is how Canadian director Matthew Rankin describes this cultural cross-pollination, “or a Hawaiian pizza”. He penned the screenplay with Iranians Ila Firouzabadi and Pirouz Nemati, who, like him, are also starring in the film. Universal Language is partly a love letter to the cinema of Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Jafar Panahi, and partly a light-hearted reflection on the alien or alienating beauty of being a tourist in one's own city.

Before the film, we will drink tea, share food and enjoy music together.