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Tradução e Mercado

Silvia Broome’s dilemma in “The Interpreter” (2005)

In this small essay I will be addressing two different questions: What ethical
problems is our character Silvia Broome faced with throughout the film and how does
it correlate with the code of conduct in the professional realm?

To begin with, The Interpreter is a movie that revolves around a woman, Silvia
Broome, who is an interpreter working for the United Nations (UN). At some point, she
overhears a conversation between two plotters who decide that they will murder the
Matoban president, Dr. Zuwanie.
This is when our character is faced with her first ethical dilemma. Silvia Broome
is not just another interpreter; she has a past that connects with this threat she
overheard. She, herself, was born in Matoban, an African country where her parents
and sister were killed by a mine planted by Dr. Zuwanie’s associates.
This African leader is described to have been a hero to the people of Matoban
but became a radical, having killed thousands of his own kind. Due to this act of
extreme violence, her and her last surviving relative, Simon (her brother), decided to
join a terrorist group, led by Ajene Xola (political opponent), against Dr. Zuwanie’s
regime.
So, when she hears this threat, she immediately assumes that her brother
Simon must be involved with this plot in some way, as he intends to have the
Matoban’s current leader gone.
As a member of the UN and has in the code of conduct she must report this
immediately to the authorities, yet she does not. This reveals to us that her character
is struggling between different ethical values: the principles of the UN (peace and
action with words) and her family principles, in other words, action with violence.
This makes her think twice before acting, she measures her options but ends
up revealing to the secret service agent, Tobin Keller, about the situation. She as in
the current situation, believes that words have much greater purpose than violence,
but this mindset of hers is shaken when coming across this event.
In a way, we could argue that she is violating some sort of code of conduct
when omitting this information about the possible assassination in the first place, but
because she was not practising interpreting when this happened, this is not then taken
as an act of violation towards her duty as an interpreter.
 She seems to understand that her ethical duty is to report this threat to the
authorities but not because of her professional code of conduct but of her own personal
ethics and morals, as she believes in peace and not violence.
Later in the film, Silvia also reveals to us that she has lied about her life to get
into the UN and work as an interpreter. She states that she had to hide her past of
violence (having killed a kid to protect her own life back in Africa) in order to get
accepted in such organisation. This is shown to be a violation of the professional code
of conduct which states that every employee should stay true to their qualifications
and not to lie in their personal curriculums.
When finding out in a written letter her brother Simon was killed and no longer
breathing, she yet again is faced with another ethical dilemma. Silvia contemplates on
conflict over diplomacy, making her act violent towards her target, Dr. Zuwanie. This
reflects on a certain lesson: we as humans and in this case, as interpreters, are faced
with countless challenges that sometimes makes us question our morals and
eventually will make us go against our own ethical values.
To conclude, this film portrays Silvia’s job as an important role, holding great
responsibility. Interpreters like our character, have access to powerful information daily
and they must be able to separate their own moral compasses from what they are
being told to interpretate and be impartial in order to say the right words without
transforming or corrupting it into something else.