- This event has passed.
qIFF: Universal Language
March 12, 2025 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Winner of the inaugural Directors’ Fortnight audience award at Cannes this year, Matthew Rankin’s follow-up to his eccentric, surreal The Twentieth Century is a gentle sort of comedy, settling us down in a reimagined Canada where Persian and French are the two official languages… and loneliness is the common currency. In Winnipeg, children set themselves on eccentric quests – or dress like Groucho Marx – to flummox the adults around them, occasionally disrupting a tour group led by the flustered Massoud (Pirouz Nemati) as he does his best to explain the city’s curious landmarks. Meanwhile, in Montreal, government wonk Matthew (played by Rankin himself) quits a job he hates and catches the first bus home to Manitoba to see his mother, only to find his family is not what he thought it was.
