Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language engages with Abbas Kiarostami’s minimalist aesthetic, employing architecture as more than a visual element—it becomes a central narrative device through which themes of displacement, identity, and cultural hybridity are explored. This paper examines how the film constructs liminal spaces, both architectural and cultural, as transitional sites that mediate between homeland and motherland, blurring fixed boundaries and facilitating the negotiation of personal and collective histories.

Through the parallel narratives of a young girl searching for a frozen 500 Rial note and a bureaucrat attempting to reconnect with his mother, Universal Language highlights the ways in which spatial and cinematic techniques shape the experience of belonging. Rankin’s deliberate use of framing, movement, and nonverbal expression transforms built environments into spaces of memory, rupture, and transformation. By situating the film within a broader discourse on architectural liminality in cinema, this analysis considers how spatial representation functions as a medium for interrogating cultural identity, mobility, and the intersections of history and place.