'Universal Language' adds Persian flavors to Winnipeg weirdness

Surreal comedy owes debt to Guy Maddin and Abbas Kiarostami.

If you ever hear someone muse, “I’ve always wanted to visit Winnipeg,” chances are that they are a fan of weird cinema. As a native Calgarian, I have nothing personal against my fellow windswept Canadian prairie city. But Winnipeg has never looked more inviting than in the strange movies of Guy Maddin (“My Winnipeg”) and now Matthew Rankin.

Rankin’s last film, “Twentieth Century,” followed Maddin’s lead in its surreal and frantic alternate history of Canada’s first prime minister. His new film, “Universal Language,” is just as odd, with Winnipeg’s “Kleenex repository” being one of its thriving businesses, and a woman bemoaning that “my sons choked to death in a marshmallow-eating competition.”

But “Universal Language” is also shot through with melancholy, and seems to owe as big a debt to Iranian master filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami as it does to Maddin.

The first clue that we’re about to enter a very different kind of Canada comes in the opening credits, which are in not English or French but Persian. Rankin, along with his co-writers Ila Firouzabadi and Pirouz Nemati, imagine a Winnipeg steeped in Iranian culture. Iranian actors play most of the residents, all the billboards and signs are written in Persian and French, and the local Tim Horton’s is a teahouse rather than a coffee shop.

The film follows several storylines, including two enterprising children who try to free paper money that’s been frozen in ice, and another young boy tries to recover his glasses which were stolen by a turkey. (Turkeys roam everywhere in this Winnipeg as revered creatures.)

But the main plot follows a man named Matthew Rankin (played by Rankin), who returns home to visit his ailing mother, and discovers that a stranger seems to have taken his place in the family. This gentle mind-bender is the most Kiarostami-esque of the storylines, and fits in snugly into a comedy about cultural identity, and who does and doesn’t belong.

Photos courtesy of Oscilloscope Pictures.

Many of the shots feel like homages to Iranian New Wave cinema, with the characters small on the screen, trudging along against the backdrops of giant Brutalist backdrops of office buildings and parking garages.

“Universal Language” is packed with gags, such as the tour guide in fuschia earmuffs who leads a small group of tourists to see historical sights, such as the Bench of the Forgotten Briefcase or the dry fountain in an abandoned mall. But the jokes don’t conflict with the gentle lyricism of the film’s emotional threads.

There’s one scene where Rankin visits the grave of his father, and the cemetery is located next to the onramp of a busy highway interchange. As cars and trucks whizz by right next to the grieving Rankin, the juxtaposition is both hilarious and poignant. The film’s distinct flavor is oddly satisfying, and those expecting a purely daffy comedy might want to stop by the Kleenex repository on the way into the theater.

“Universal Language” has its Madison premiere at 7 p.m. Thursday at UW Cinematheque, 4070 Vilas Hall.