Synopsis
Somewhere between Tehran and Winnipeg, Negin and Nazgol find a sum of money frozen in the winter ice and try to retrieve it. Massoud leads a group of increasingly bewildered tourists through Winnipeg’s monuments and historical sites. Matthew leaves his job in the Québec government and embarks on a mysterious journey to visit his mother. Space, time, and personal identities intertwine.
Filmmaker
Matthew Rankin
He studied Québec history at McGill University and Université Laval and is the director of thirty short films. His work has screened at Cannes Critics Week, Sundance, Rotterdam, Clermont-Ferrand and received awards at SXSW, TIFF and the Annecy International Animation Festival. One of Matthew’s films was also temporarily banned in his native Winnipeg. He has been artist in residence at the Corporation of Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony and the Klondike Institute for Art in Dawson City, Yukon. Matthew works in English, French and, increasingly, Esperanto.
Filmography: Universal Language (2024, D'A 2025), Municipal Relaxation Module (short film, 2022), The Twentieth Century (2019, D'A 2020), The Tesla World Light (short film, 2017), The Radical Expeditions of Walter Boudreau (short film, 2015), Mynarski Death Plummet (short film, 2014), Tabula Rasa (short film, 2012), Negativipeg (short film, 2010), Hydro-Lévesque (short film, 2008), Cattle Call (short film, 2008), Sharhé-Halé Shakhsi: M. Rankin (short film, 2008), I Dream of Driftwood (short film, 2008), Où est Maurice? (short film, 2006), Le facteur poulpe (short film, 2005)
Awards and festivals
Directors' Fortnight Audience Award
TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL
Best Canadian Discovery Award
STOCKHOLM FILM FESTIVAL
Best Direction
THESSALONIKI FILM FESTIVAL
Golden Alexander Award for Best Film of the Film Forward Competition
VIENNALE
FIPRESCI Award
Poster
