Universal Language

This screening took place on Wednesday, April 16, 2025 at 6:30 pmYukon Theatre

Winter. Somewhere between Tehran and Winnipeg. Free admission for National Canadian Film Day!

Negin and Nazgol find a sum of money frozen deep within the sidewalk ice and try to find a way to get it out. Massoud leads a group of befuddled tourists upon an increasingly-strange walking tour of Winnipeg historic sites. Matthew leaves his job at the Québec government and embarks upon a mysterious journey to visit his estranged mother. An autobiographical hallucination from the writer/ director of The 20th Century (ALFF 2020).

Universal Language is a breathtakingly gorgeous film - transforming Winnipeg's scant landscape and brutalist architecture into something you refuse to tear your eyes from. Think Monty Python meets Finnish legend Aki Kaurismaki meets Iranian auteur, Abbas Kiarostami.  Short-listed for Best International Film for the 2025 Oscars.