The Interpreter (2005) on Netflix
United Nations interpreter Silvia Broome reports that she overheard talk of an assassination in Ku, a rare Matoban dialect few others understand. Agent Tobin Keller is sent to check her story.
- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb6.4/10116,535 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes57%
Trailer
Plot summary
Silvia Broome works as an interpreter at United Nations headquarters in New York. The organization is weighing an indictment of President Edmond Zuwanie of Matobo, whose regime has carried out ethnic cleansing. Zuwanie plans to come to the General Assembly and argue his own case against the charges. One evening a security scare empties the building, and Silvia slips back inside to collect her belongings. There she hears two men speaking in Ku, the Matoban lingua franca, about a killing, and runs when they notice her. The next day, while interpreting, she picks out phrases from that conversation and tells UN security what she heard. The Secret Service assigns agents Tobin Keller and Dot Woods to look into her account and to guard Zuwanie when he arrives. Zuwanie's security chief, Nils Lud, reaches New York.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Interpreter (2005)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- After requests to film inside the United Nations were denied, and faced with the cost of using a constructed set in Toronto instead, director Pollack approached then-Secretary-General Kofi Annan directly and personally negotiated permission to shoot in the building.
- Filming happened only at weekends, on public holidays or at night so the UN's work was not disturbed, with the set closed to tourists and staff. Ambassadors had hoped to appear, but actors were used as the diplomats, and Spain's UN Ambassador Inocencio Arias joked that a stupid regulation had cost him an Oscar nomination.
- The Republic of Matobo and its language, Ku, were invented for the film. Said el-Gheithy, director of the Centre for African Language Learning in Covent Garden, London, was commissioned in January 2004 to create Ku as a cross between Swahili and Shona, with some unique elements.
- On release in Zimbabwe, the country's Minister of Information and Publicity, Chen Chimutengwende, called the film anti-government propaganda, saying Matobo and the fictional Edmond Zuwanie were thinly veiled caricatures of Zimbabwe and President Robert Mugabe. The Zimbabwe Media Censorship Board found nothing objectionable and approved it for release.
