The ‘Whistleblower’ – real life story of post-war Bosnia

The film “The Whistleblower” was screened yesterday at the UN

 

The film “The Whistleblower” was screened yesterday at the UN followed by a panel discussion addressing the issue of sex trafficking in post-war Bosnia. Directed by first time filmmaker Larysa Kondracki and inspired by actual events the film tells the story of Kathryn Bolkovac, an American police officer who uncovers a scheme by contractors and peacekeepers paying for prostitutes and participating in sex-trafficking. Based on a true story, a female cop from Nebraska serves as a peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia and outs the U.N. for covering up a sex scandal.

Inspired by actual events, Kathy (Academy Award® winner Rachel Weisz) is an American police officer who takes a job working as a peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia. Her expectations of helping to rebuild a devastated country are dashed when she uncovers a dangerous reality of corruption, cover-up and intrigue amid a world of private contractors and multinational diplomatic doubletalk. Directed by first time filmmaker Larysa Kondracki, the film also stars Academy Award winner Vanessa Redgrave, Monica Bellucci and Academy Award nominee David Strathairn.UNTV / SAMUEL GOLDWYN FILMS.

 

The Whistleblower is a 2010 thriller film directed by Larysa Kondracki, written by Kondracki and Eilis Kirwan, starring Rachel Weisz. Inspired by actual events, the film tells the story of Kathryn Bolkovac, and premiered at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival. It was distributed theatrically in the United States by Samuel Goldwyn Films in August 2011.

In Canadian director Larysa Kondracki’s gripping based-on-a-true-story debut feature The Whistleblower, Rachel Weisz delivers a subtle yet riveting performance as a Nebraska cop who confronts the heart of darkness – sex-slave trafficking – after taking a lucrative short-term job with an international police task force supporting peacekeeping in Sarajevo in 1999.

One of few women on the force, Kathy Bolkovac (Weisz) soon stands out for, as the character frequently says in the movie, “just doing my job.” After facilitating the first conviction of domestic violence since the end of the war, she is asked to head the local gender office by Madeleine Rees (Vanessa Redgrave), an official in the U.N.’s Human Rights High Commission. The job involves investigating crimes related to women, including sex trafficking.

“You up for it?” Rees asks. A simple but loaded question. It’s clear the U.N. brass in this film – David Strathairn in a small but pivotal role as a seemingly sympathetic insider and Monica Belluci in the more dispensable part as the commission’s jaded top official – are aware the region’s sex-slave industry involves not only the patronage but also complicity of peacekeepers, U.N. workers and members of the police task force. These guys have immunity from prosecution, as Bolkovac discovers.

The Whistleblower builds tension around whether Bolkovac’s job is just for show or if her superiors, protecting their own jobs, hope this pro-active but naive outsider will indeed become a whistleblower.

From the movie’s brisk first half-hour we know Bolkovac is motivated. Back home, her dedication to her job cost her two marriages. Her ex has custody of her young teen daughter and is moving her, along with his new family, to a different city. Bolkovac’s applications for transfer have been turned down. “The money is good,” she tells her daughter on the phone after accepting the gender office job.

Bolkovac struggles to stay in step with the local police and her former task-force colleagues. A latecomer to a raid on a local bar, Bolkovac learns that the girls being shoved into vehicles by police will be taken to a local shelter –”it’s like a vacation” one of the cops says. But the girls never arrive.

Kondracki and co-writer Eilis Kirwan move Bolkovac’s story forward in engaging procedural fashion, keeping the mood tense and murky, particularly in a haunting scene where Bolkovac is alone with a flashlight exploring the “cell” where the girls have been held. But there are also clunky bits of business and dialogue. In one scene, for instance, Bolkovac interviews a young sex slave and mentions how her own daughter was “taken away” and, so, “maybe I can change what happens to you”– Weisz’s emotional performance hardly requires that connection to be stated so overtly.

While The Whistleblower mainly focuses on Bolkovac’s frustrating and increasingly dangerous investigation, there is also a parallel subplot following the fate of two Ukrainian girls caught in the sex-slave ring Kathy targets. This storyline isn’t dramatically satisfying, but it does provide context and ensures the victims in this story are not portrayed simply as faces in the dark.

Rachel Weisz won a best supporting actress Oscar for her role in The Constant Gardener (based on a John le Carre novel), playing an activist who is murdered for her investigation into a corporate pharmaceutical scandal in Africa. Her performance in The Whistleblower elevates her into the Oscar-worthy ranks of Norma Rae, Karen Silkwood and Erin Brockovich – a real-life crusader who steps outside her comfort zone to do the right thing, whatever the cost.

Progress for women continues, social transformation lags behind

Rashida ManjooLaws fighting discrimination against women have been established, but putting them into practice has been a problem, a rights expert told the UN General Assembly. Special Rapporteur Rashida Manjoo was presenting a key thematic report on violence against women, its causes and consequences. Her mandate is to analyze violence against women in four spheres – in the family, in the community, violence perpetrated or condoned by the state and violence in the trans-national sphere.

TRAILER

The Whistleblower 14A

•The Whistleblower
•Directed by Larysa Kondracki
•Screenplay by Eilis Kirwan and Larysa Kondracki
•Starring Rachel Weisz, David Strathairn, Vanessa Redgrave and Monica Bellucci

 

Showtimes: TORONTO, CANADA

Royal Cinema

608 College St. West, Toronto, ON

‎7:00‎

Revue Cinema

400 Roncesvalles Avenue, Toronto, ON

‎7:00‎

Kingsway Theatre
3030 Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON

‎12:45‎

Rottentomatoes.com gave The Whistleblower a 71%, with a rating of 6.43/10. Out of 72 reviews, 51 gave it a positive review. Metacritic gave the film a 58 out of 100, with critics giving it both a positive and mixed review.