In the Canadian cities of Montreal and Winnipeg, a futile tension exists between French and English speakers — doubly silly, since the country is officially bilingual. In his gently satirical “Universal Language,” writer-director Matthew Rankin imagines a rather fanciful solution, where Farsi is now the region’s dominant tongue. Taking his cues from such Iranian classics as “Children of Heaven” and “The White Balloon,” Rankin mixes the humanism of Majid Majidi, Jafar Panahi, et al. with his own peculiar brand of comedy (as seen in the more off-the-wall “The Twentieth Century”), offering a delightful cross-cultural hybrid designed to celebrate our differences.
Though Rankin shows a genuine affection for all things Persian, the first and most obvious hiccup to his premise is that audiences don’t necessarily share his interest or his references. There’s something inherently provocative — and perhaps even triggering to some — about seeing a nondescript Canadian elementary school where...
Though Rankin shows a genuine affection for all things Persian, the first and most obvious hiccup to his premise is that audiences don’t necessarily share his interest or his references. There’s something inherently provocative — and perhaps even triggering to some — about seeing a nondescript Canadian elementary school where...
- 5/18/2024
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever (Bff) has acquired international sales rights for Canadian director Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language.
The intriguing Persian and French-language drama is among 21 feature films announced as being selected for the 2024 edition of Cannes parallel section Directors’ Fortnight on Tuesday.
In a first key distribution deal for the movie, Oscilloscope Laboratories have taken U.S. rights. Quebecois distributor Maison4Tiers will release in Canada.
Universal Language is Rankin’s second feature after The Twentieth Century, on which Bff also handled international sales. The surrealist dark comedy won the Berlinale Fipresci Award in 2020 and Best Canadian debut award in TIFF Midnight Madness 2019.
Rankin has also made multiple short films including The Tesla World Light, which premiered in Cannes Critic’s Week 2017.
Going under the Persian title of Avaz boughalamoune (Lovesong for a Turkey), Rankin’s new film Universal Language is described as taking place “somewhere between...
The intriguing Persian and French-language drama is among 21 feature films announced as being selected for the 2024 edition of Cannes parallel section Directors’ Fortnight on Tuesday.
In a first key distribution deal for the movie, Oscilloscope Laboratories have taken U.S. rights. Quebecois distributor Maison4Tiers will release in Canada.
Universal Language is Rankin’s second feature after The Twentieth Century, on which Bff also handled international sales. The surrealist dark comedy won the Berlinale Fipresci Award in 2020 and Best Canadian debut award in TIFF Midnight Madness 2019.
Rankin has also made multiple short films including The Tesla World Light, which premiered in Cannes Critic’s Week 2017.
Going under the Persian title of Avaz boughalamoune (Lovesong for a Turkey), Rankin’s new film Universal Language is described as taking place “somewhere between...
- 4/16/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Despite all her evident idiosyncrasies, there’s something familiar about Sophia (Anne Élisabeth Bossé), the focus of Quebecois debutante Monia Chokri’s comedy “A Brother’s Love,” which gets the Un Certain Regard sidebar of Cannes off to a springy if overlong and somewhat stumbling start. Sophia may have a PhD in political philosophy but she lives a remarkably unexamined life. And in that she is enabled by a co-dependent relationship with her attractive psychologist brother Karim (Patrick Hivon) which traps them both in an eternally arrested state of emotional adolescence. The familiarity springs from a realisation that the male version of Sophia’s character is such a common staple of the modern comedy as to be nearly a cliché: the lovable manchild whose emotional immaturity is actually part of his charm.
However these traits distilled into a woman by Chokri’s promising if overindulgent screenplay and Bossé’s admirably uncompromised performance,...
However these traits distilled into a woman by Chokri’s promising if overindulgent screenplay and Bossé’s admirably uncompromised performance,...
- 5/16/2019
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
La femme de mon frère
French-Canadian actress Monia Chokri makes her directorial debut with My Brother’s Wife (La femme de mon frère). Produced by Nancy Grant and Sylvain Corbeil of Metafilms, the title was lensed by Bertrand Bonello’s favored Dp Josée Deshaies. The film stars a nice brochette of Quebecois thesps in Anne-Élisabeth Bossé, Patrick Hivon, Évelyne Brochu, Micheline Bernard, Magalie Lépine-Blondeau, Mani Soleymanlou and another Dolan staple, Anne Dorval.…...
French-Canadian actress Monia Chokri makes her directorial debut with My Brother’s Wife (La femme de mon frère). Produced by Nancy Grant and Sylvain Corbeil of Metafilms, the title was lensed by Bertrand Bonello’s favored Dp Josée Deshaies. The film stars a nice brochette of Quebecois thesps in Anne-Élisabeth Bossé, Patrick Hivon, Évelyne Brochu, Micheline Bernard, Magalie Lépine-Blondeau, Mani Soleymanlou and another Dolan staple, Anne Dorval.…...
- 1/3/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
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