Source · channel 01 — fact, plate, billingTranslation · channel 02 — prose, argument
The Interpreter2005 · an unofficial fan site

Source · the fact plate

TITLETHE INTERPRETER
YEAR2005
DIRECTORSYDNEY POLLACK
RUNNING TIME128 MIN
DISTRIBUTORUNIVERSAL PICTURES
CERTIFICATEPG-13
LOCATIONUN HQ, NEW YORK
LANGUAGE (FICT.)KU · MATOBO

Translation · the film

The Film That Got Inside the United Nations

A political thriller about professional listening, shot in the one building that had never let a feature crew through the door. Sydney Pollack's last picture, taken on its own terms — the film, the cast, the making, and where it landed.

The sequence Where to watch
Theatrical one-sheet poster for The Interpreter (2005)
Poster · theatrical one-sheet01 TITLETHE INTERPRETER DIRECTED BYSYDNEY POLLACK WITHNICOLE KIDMAN · SEAN PENN RELEASED BYUNIVERSAL PICTURES YEAR2005

Translation · what it is

Two people in a building, refusing to agree

Nicole Kidman's Silvia Broome hears a threat in a language almost nobody else in the room speaks. Sean Penn's Tobin Keller is sent to protect the man who is threatened, and decides the interpreter is the problem. The film is the argument between them, conducted at low volume in real corridors.

Read: the film Read: two people
In partnership · channel 03Carried on the third channel, between the source and the translation.
Sequence · source beats
What it means
01After hours, she re-enters the General Assembly hall.
Her being there is ordinary. The film establishes that before it makes it dangerous.
02Two men speak in Ku, the language of Matobo.
They speak freely because the room should be empty of anyone who could follow them. It is not.
03She takes it as a threat against President Edmond Zuwanie.
No recording, no second witness. Her ear and her word are the entire evidence.
04She reports it; the Secret Service takes the case.
The story leaves her hands the moment she tells it — the institutional joke at the centre of the film.
05Agent Tobin Keller investigates the witness.
The interpreter, trained to be a neutral channel, is now the thing being interpreted. Full breakdown →
In partnership · channel 03Organisations who share our interest in the film.
Cast · billingFive players
What they bring
01 Portrait: Nicole Kidman, who plays UN interpreter Silvia Broome KIDMAN, NICOLESILVIA BROOME
Composure treated as a professional skill — and the small failures of it treated as plot. Composure as a Professional Skill →
02 Portrait: Sean Penn, who plays Secret Service agent Tobin Keller PENN, SEANTOBIN KELLER
Grief-hollowed and procedural. His disbelief, not the plot against Zuwanie, drives the film. The Agent Who Investigates the Witness →
03 Portrait: Catherine Keener, who plays Secret Service agent Dot Woods KEENER, CATHERINEDOT WOODS
Keller's partner and the film's dry ballast — the one who says the obvious thing out loud. The Corridor Players →
04 Portrait: Jesper Christensen, who plays Matoban security chief Nils Lud CHRISTENSEN, JESPERNILS LUD
Zuwanie's head of security: courteous, unreadable, and always already in the corridor. The Corridor Players →
05 Portrait: Earl Cameron, who plays Matoban president Edmond Zuwanie CAMERON, EARLEDMOND ZUWANIE
A liberator turned strongman, played with a stillness the script does not always deserve. The Corridor Players →
The full cast index →

Five performances, and what the film asks of each — the cast, and what each brings.

In partnership · channel 03A quiet card between two bands, in the booth’s own voice.

Source · the making · location

United Nations Headquarters in New York, where the film was shot
  1. RequestedPermission to film inside United Nations Headquarters is sought for a commercial feature.
  2. RefusedThe first approaches are turned down; a constructed set stands as the fallback.
  3. Appealed directlyPollack takes the case to Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
  4. Permitted, with conditionsThe unit works around the organisation’s own calendar — the first feature shot inside the building.

Translation · what it changed

Inside the House: What the UN Allowed

The access is not set dressing. Real corridors impose real distances between people, and the film uses them: conversations held at the length the institution actually enforces, in a building whose glass keeps putting a pane between us and whoever we are trying to read.

Read the location panelThe invented language

Source · the Pollack shelf

They Shoot Horses, Don't They?1969
Three Days of the Condor1975
Tootsie1982
Out of Africa1985
The Firm1993
The Interpreter2005

Translation · where this one sits

Pollack's Last Thriller

  • They Shoot Horses, Don't They? — The endurance picture — Pollack at his most pitiless.
  • Three Days of the Condor — The paranoid thriller this film is most often measured against.
  • Tootsie — The comedy, and the proof he could direct performance above all.
  • Out of Africa — The prestige epic; his Academy Award for direction.
  • The Firm — The commercial thriller, procedural and unhurried.
  • The Interpreter — His last feature as director.

He died in 2008. The Interpreter was the last feature he directed, and it works the same seam as Three Days of the Condor thirty years earlier — institutions, and the people employed inside them — with much less faith in how it ends.

Pollack’s methodWhere it sits
In partnership · channel 03Recommended by the booth; one card at a time, never a wall.

Source · the index

Translation · fourteen pieces

01 · The Film

What Silvia Broome Actually Overhears

The central scene, stepped through beat by beat.

The Film · 6 min read 01 · The Film

The Film That Got Inside the United Nations

A thriller about professional listening, shot in the one building that had never allowed it.

The Film · 7 min read 03 · The Making

Inside the House: What the UN Allowed

The permission, the conditions, and what filming there actually changed.

The Making · 4 min read 02 · The Cast

The Cast, and What Each Brings

Five performances, and what the film asks of them.

The Cast · 5 min read 03 · The Making

The Language They Invented for Matobo

Building a fictional African language, and why the film needed one.

The Making · 6 min read 01 · The Film

Two People in a Building, Refusing to Agree

The argument between Broome and Keller is the plot; everything else is corridor.

The Film · 3 min read 02 · The Cast

Composure as a Professional Skill

Kidman plays an interpreter trained to disappear, then makes the failures of that the plot.

The Cast · 3 min read 02 · The Cast

The Agent Who Investigates the Witness

Penn's Keller drives the film through disbelief rather than through the conspiracy.

The Cast · 2 min read 02 · The Cast

The Corridor Players

Keener, Christensen and Cameron, and how much each does with little.

The Cast · 2 min read 03 · The Making

Pollack's Last Thriller

A director who trusted rooms and actors more than cutting.

The Making · 2 min read 03 · The Making

Glass, Grey and Distance

How the film is shot: long lenses, real corridors, very little score.

The Making · 4 min read 04 · Reception

How It Was Received

The response at the time, and what the arguments were about.

Reception · 3 min read 04 · Reception

The Politics It Declines to Simplify

A thriller that refuses to hand you a villain quickly.

Reception · 2 min read 04 · Reception

Where It Sits Among Political Thrillers

A crowded field. What this one does differently.

Reception · 6 min read
In partnership · channel 03The last of the featured cards; the rest run in the closing credits.

Source · reference

IMDbCREDITS ↗ Rotten TomatoesAGGREGATE ↗ MetacriticSCORE ↗

Translation · where to watch

The record, elsewhere

Reviews on release were mixed — the craft and the location admired, the screenplay doubted. We keep no score of our own; the three references opposite are the record.

Streaming and rental availability moves by region and by rights window. The film has stayed in circulation on disc from Universal; check a current listing service for your country.

Where to Watch →

Closing credits · the rest of the booth’s partners

Run at the end, the way credits are: names without commentary.