Country's leaderless state shown in film; not, oddly, optimal (8)

I believe the answer is:

ethiopia

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'country's' is the definition.
(Ethiopia is an example)

'leaderless state shown in film not oddly optimal' is the wordplay.
'leaderless' means to remove the first letter.
'state' becomes 'Ohio' (Ohio is an example).
'shown in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'film not' becomes 'et' (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. I am not sure about the 'not' bit.).
'oddly' means one should take alternating letters (letters in the odd-numbered positions are used).
The alternating letters of 'optimal' are 'pia'.
'ohio' with its initial letter removed is 'hio'.
'et'+'pia'='etpia'
'hio' put inside 'etpia' is 'ETHIOPIA'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for ethiopia that I've seen before include "East African country" , "Former Abyssinia" , "Largest country of the Horn of Africa" , "Strife-torn NE African country, capital Addis Ababa" , "Landlocked Afr. country" .)

I've seen this clue in The Everyman puzzle in The Observer.

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