10 Strangest Fictitious Countries

9. Matobo - The Interpreter

Zamunda Coming To America
Universal Pictures

When news first broke that Sydney Pollack's new thriller was to be shot inside the United Nations Building, there was reason to get excited. Pollack never set off fireworks, but he was always reliable, with a good track record of political thrillers that included Three Days of the Condor and Absence of Malice. What's more, a director who was alive and working during Watergate looked primed to give us another All The President's Men.

All The President's Men this was not. The Interpreter opens with the kind of delicious, high-concept tag it promised: Nicole Kidman, an interpreter from the African nation of Matobo, overhears a conversation about plans to assassinate the president of her country. Once Sean Penn is assigned to both investigate and protect her, the film appears as if it's going to settle into a standard assassination conspiracy groove.

But the film, like Penn, is much more interested in its politics than entertainment. Soon, heavy-handed talks between the two about war crimes and conscience take over. It feels as though Penn hijacked the evening to lecture you, and he's turned pretentiousness up to 11.

It doesn't help that the country and leader supposedly both commendable for his early actions in Matobo and condemnable for his current ones doesn't exist. Matobo is the sort of needless invention of the left, a stand-in for Zimbabwe, so as to avoid offending anyone; the kind of have-your-cake-and-eat-it liberal messaging that never accomplishes anything but turn off the other side.

Contributor
Contributor

Kenny Hedges is carbon-based. So I suppose a simple top 5 in no order will do: Halloween, Crimes and Misdemeanors, L.A. Confidential, Billy Liar, Blow Out He has his own website - thefilmreal.com - and is always looking for new writers with differing views to broaden the discussion.