Abstract:
The cinema is a captivating, if complex route to the cultural sphere where it is
born, which makes it difficult for the spectators from another lin/,'llistic
dimension to grasp the notion behind the screen. This is one ofthe areas in which
translators are most visible with their work in subtitling. Subtitling is the bridge
that links those two cultural spheres that appear as a textual version of dialogue,
in a movie that are usually displayed at the bottom of the screen. It is generally
agreed that subtitling via cultures is rather a difficult task. This study is based on
the film "The Dictator" by Larry Charles where a dictator who dreams that
democracy would never come to his country he so lovingly oppressed. It extends
for a time duration of ninety minutes with constant dialogues. A Sinhalese
version of subtitling has never been released. When analysed, several factors
could be identified as the notion behind this. The biggest problem a translator
would encounter during the process of subtitling the movie is the unique
language style of the protagonist. He has such an absurd composition that he uses
a lot of personal affiictions, swearing and slang from a language combination of
Hebrew, Arabic and English. Transferring satire is the other complication a
translator may encounter. Satire plays a major role in the movie but the sense of
humour bounds with certain dialogues are vastly related to American culture and
sexually explicit content that Sri Lankan spectatorship may not be familiarised
with. Thus, it is problematic for a translator to utilise the content appropriately.
Hence, if advanced with the above complications, the outcome would be
unproductive. This results in a loss; partial or complete of the source film's
message.
