There is a line in “ Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant ” in which Jake Gyllenhaal’s Army Sgt. John Kinley is having a disagreement with Dar Salim’s Ahmed, the man assigned to be his interpreter in Afghanistan, who has gone beyond straight translation and into the realm of strategy. Kinley tells him that he’s there to translate. Ahmed responds that he’s an interpreter.
The line is Gyllenhaal’s favorite and a perfect encapsulation of the dynamic between the two men, who, despite themselves, forge a bond that goes beyond words and has both risking their lives to save the other in the name of a debt.
