The Interpreter

The Interpreter is a 2005 political thriller film directed by Sydney Pollack, starring Nicole Kidman, Sean Penn, Catherine Keener, and Jesper Christensen. It was the first film shot inside the United Nations Headquarters, as well as the final feature film directed by Pollack before his death in 2008. An international co-production between the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and France, the film was released in all three countries in April 2005. It received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $162 million against its $80 million budget. Plot In the fictional Southern African country of Matobo, rebel leader Ajene Xola drives two men, Simon Broome and Philippe, to an abandoned stadium. They discuss how President Edmond Zuwanie's regime has ruthlessly exterminated most of the population, and intimidated the survivors into silence. Upon their arrival at the stadium, they find three schoolboys, who point Xola and Simon in the direction of corpses left by Zuwanie's security apparatus, while Philippe stays in the car. When Xola and Simon return to the playing field, they are executed by the boys, who are accomplices of Zuwanie's secret police. Philippe clambers out of the car and hides, taking pictures of a car arriving carrying Zuwanie's lackeys, and then escapes. Simon's sister, Silvia, works at the United Nations Interpretation Service in New York. A white African born in the United States to a British mother and white Matoban father, she was raised in Matobo, and studied in France. Her diverse background leads to UN Security Chief Lee Wu wryly describing her as "being the UN".