by emad » Tue Sep 06, 2005 11:03 am
<br>Zimbabwe has accused a recent Hollywood film starring Nicole Kidman of being a "CIA-sponsored" campaign against President Robert Mugabe. <br><br>Acting Information Minister Chen Chimutengwende said The Interpreter was a thinly-disguised swipe at Mr Mugabe. <br><br>Kidman plays an interpreter at the UN who overhears a plot to kill the leader of a fictional African country. <br><br>Mr Chimutengwende called it propaganda and showed that "Zimbabwe's enemies did not rest". <br><br>Enemy <br><br>Directed by Sydney Pollack, the film also stars Sean Penn as a secret agent who investigates the assassination plot. <br><br>Mr Chimutengwende said the film, which centres on an octogenarian African leader who plans to address the UN General Assembly, had "obvious connections" to Mr Mugabe. <br><br>"The film talks about an African president going to the United Nations and our president is going to the UN next week so the connection is so obvious," he said. <br><br>"It is part of a CIA-sponsored fight... but we will defeat them and we will defeat neo-colonialism. We have defeated a powerful enemy before which was colonialism," Mr Chimutengwende added. <br><br>Mr Mugabe has been in power since 1980 when Zimbabwe won independence from the UK. <br><br>He is accused by foreign critics and domestic opposition of being responsible for the country's economic decline and for stifling democracy. <br><br>Sanctions were imposed on the country by the European Union and the US following the last presidential election. <br><br>The election was condemned as seriously flawed by the opposition and foreign observers. <br><br>The Interpreter ran for two weeks in July at cinemas in the Zimbabwean capital Harare and is now available on video. <br><br>Opposition legislator Trudy Stevenson described the accusations as "paranoia" that came two months too late. <br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/4216168.stm">news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/enter...216168.stm</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <p></p><i></i>
