The Whistleblower

****

The Whistleblower-Sp  This is a documdrama about Kathryn Bolkovac (Rachel Weisz)  a divorced policewoman from Nebraska who signed up with a company providing contracted services to the United Nations involved with peace keeping and training local police to investigate crimes in Bosnia shortly after the end of the war there. She comes to realize that young girls are being forced into sexual slavery. She discovers much to her disbelief that not only are local police involved by accepting bribes to look the other way while these young women are forced into prostitution but many of them are involved in the abuse of them. She soon further realizes that her fellow police officers of the international force contracted to work in Bosnia.  including the Americans  are deeply involved as are many of the diplomats all of whom have diplomatic immunity. Director  Larysa Kondracki co-wrote this story with Eilis Kirwan. They have been working on this project for 8 years since their Columbia Film School days. An all star cast of Vanessa Redgrave Monica Bellucci and David Strathairn bring top notch acting to this movie. Kondracki and Kirwan  chose to focus their story on the real person  of Boklovac whom they met in Holland where she now lives with her children and  Dutch husband whom she  met in Bosnia. The filmmakers describe how the film is quite accurate and if anything the abuse and maltreatment of the girls is minimized in the film compared to what really happened to them.  They chose to try to tell the story of this whistleblower character played by Weisz and also particularly bring to life one of girls who is an important part of the plot and who dared to speak against her enslavers and dearly paid for doing so.  As you understand how so many people are involved in what is a multi-million dollar or if not billion dollar industry of human trafficking, you realize how much danger Kathery Bolkovac is in. It is at this point in the movie which is not only is a social commentary on an important issue but it is now become an effective  mystery thriller. In the end the viewer cannot help but feel enraged and angry as well as enlightened.. Ms Kondracki shared with us that the office of the United Nations Secretary General is actually trying to decide how they should respond to this film and whether they will support it or speak out against it. This demonstrates how revealing and powerful this movie is as it depicts what was happening 10 years ago in Bosnia and which the filmmakers believe is still a major problem throughout the world. This is not a feel good movie and in fact is quite the opposite. But it is definitely worth seeing. (2011)

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