Hello, fellow language professional! Are you so enthusiastic about translation that you keep thinking about it after you’ve finished working? It happens to the best of us (or to the least sane, however you want to see it…). If this is your case, you’re in luck: in this article, we’ll discuss eight films about translation for you to have fun thinking about your profession.
And for those interpreters who are about to complain, we are one step ahead: we’ve included films about interpretation as well.
1. The Interpreter
We couldn’t begin this list without mentioning the most popular film about translation, with the amazing Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn as leads. Kidman plays Silvia Broome, a specialist in African languages and dialects who works as an interpreter at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Her life takes a sharp turn when she overhears a secret conversation about a death threat against an African leader. The problem is that the killers know that she has deciphered the message, which puts her own life at risk.
This 2005 political thriller shows how such specific and apparently insignificant knowledge can be crucial in international relations.
2. The Translators (Les traducteurs)
We’ve all had a dreadful client at some point in our career, but I can assure you that their whims were nothing compared to the ones of the character of this 2019 movie.
This French feature film portrays the worst nightmare for any professional translator, especially because it deals with the legal aspects of confidentiality agreements. The premise is simple but effective: nine translators of different languages are hired to translate a highly anticipated novel before its publication, but, upon learning that the first ten pages have been leaked, the author will do his best to find out who broke the agreement, without ruling out turning to violence.
3. Spanglish
Who hasn’t laughed with Adam Sandler’s movies? This 2004 production is not a cult classic, but there’s more to it than meets the eye.
Adam Sandler plays a chef who hires a Mexican maid to work at his house. The problem is that this woman (played by Spanish actor Paz Vega) doesn’t know a word of English, so her daughter must act as an interpreter between her and her employers. The novelty is that the daughter won’t only be a language interpreter, but she will also interpret Sandler’s turbulent marriage to his wife (played by Téa Leoni), who suffers from bipolar disorder.
4. The Covenant
As the name implies, this 2013 film directed by Guy Ritchie focuses on the pact between the U.S. government and its interpreters during the Afghanistan war, which consisted of granting them an American visa in exchange for their services.
The story follows former Sergeant John Kinley (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ahmed Abdullah (Dar Salim), his new interpreter, as they fight the Taliban. When Sergeant Kinley learns of Ahmed’s former affiliation with the enemy, the Afghan must earn his trust. The film focuses on how this kind of interpretation is more than just translating words: it involves helping foreigners navigate the hostile territory around them.
5. Welcome to the Sticks (Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis)
What happens when translation is not between two languages, but between two dialects? This is the premise of this French feature film directed, co-written, and starred by Dany Boon. It’s a story of linguistic disagreements that touches on classic themes such as the countryside versus the city. Welcome to the Sticks follows the story of Phillippe Abrams, a postal service worker who is forced to move to the small town of Bergues in northern France, near the border with Belgium. There, he has no choice but to live with charming but very different people who not only have strange customs—they also speak an unintelligible dialect.
The film shows how a clash of cultures can dispel all kinds of prejudices, even if only by force.
6. Susotázs
This 2018 production is a 16-minute short film. The story follows two English-Hungarian interpreters at a conference in the city of Prague. When they learn that there’s only one woman listening to their interpretation channel, the men try to catch her attention in any way they can.
The film is also known by its French title, Chuchotage, a word that alludes to whispered interpretation, a method of interpretation in which the interpreter whispers the translation into the ear of one of the meeting attendees. This term was so appealing to director Barnabás Tóth that he decided to change the film’s title from his original choice, Flirt.
7. A Translator (Un traductor)
This jewel of Latin American cinema is a 2018 Cuban-Canadian production directed by brothers Rodrigo and Sebastián Barriuso. The film takes place in 1989 and focuses on a professor of Russian literature at the University of Havana (played by Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro), who has to work with radiation victims from the Chernobyl disaster. The affected children, who don’t know Spanish, were sent to Cuba due to the good health system of the country, and the professor must work as a translator for the young patients.
8. Arrival
Finally, what would happen if the language we had to translate from wasn’t found in any dictionary? And if it wasn’t from this planet? This is the hypothesis of this great film by Denis Villeneuve, released in 2016. The story begins with the arrival of twelve gigantic alien ships, each one found at a different point on Earth, one of which is—as always—the United States. As anyone can expect, the affected countries seek to communicate with these extraterrestrial lives. That’s why linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is summoned together with physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) to try to decipher the mysterious language.
Something interesting about this film is that the aliens communicate through huge, suspended ink stains, which end up being much more than just words… If you are a translator and you like science fiction, this movie has everything you want!
Conclusion
All these films about translation and interpretation are as engaging to the general public as they are to language professionals. However, we can also watch them with a critical eye to understand how the world sees our professions. At Palabra we love to focus on artistic productions that talk about our work. You can find other articles about movies in our blog!
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