Boring

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina between from 1992-95 was one of the most horrific struggles since World War II. Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia were thrown together in a postwar settlement that necessitated intervention from United Nation peacekeeping forces. It also included special "global service" contractors like Democra that is depicted in "The Whistleblower" as full of corrupt and mercenary predators engaging in human trafficking.Kathryn Bolkovac (Rachel Weisz) is an honest cop from Lincoln, Nebraska, who volunteers for a stint in Bosnia to help with reconstruction, peacekeeping, and law enforcement and nation building in the late 1990s. The film depicts Kathryn's nightmare in attempting to rescue young women from the Ukraine who have been sold into bondage in Bosnia-Herzegovnia.Katryn faces an uphill battle, as nearly everyone from the cops to local authorities to international bureaucrats seem to be complicit in human trafficking. The most appalling dereliction of duty comes from the U.N. itself, as evident in the feckless character of Bill Hynes. It was only due to the tenacity of Kathryn Bolkovac that the case files were eventually shared with the press that the truth was known. Eventually, Kathryn published the book that was the basis for the film: "The Whistleblower: Sex Trafficking, Military Contractors and One Woman's Fight for Justice." The film is successful in portraying Kathryn's heroic struggle as the whistleblower. It also demonstrates how international agreements can experience a total breakdown. In 1995, the Dayton Peace Accords laid out the framework for the division of the former nation-state of Yugoslavia following the Bosnian War. A stipulation of the accords was for an international conglomeration of organizations to monitor and implement the peace agreements. But human greed intervened, leading to enormous atrocities. The film is unflinching in depicting those atrocities, and it reminds viewers at the end that "private contractors" are worth billions in revenues from clean-up work in Iraq and Afghanistan. Let us hope and pray that those contractors include more people like Kathryn Bolkovac.

The Whistleblower starts with a depiction of how girls from eastern Europe were trafficked into the Balkans for the sex industry that grew up after the Dayton Peace Accords of 1995. Tempted by the offer of a job in the West, two girls, Raya and Luba, end up in a life of sexual slavery to men working for the very institution that was there to protect civilians – the United Nations.The early scenes with Katherine Belkovac, played by Rachel Weisz, introduce her as a police officer from Nebraska who accepts a job in Bosnia for the money and perhaps as a break from her domestic problems, employed by Democra, a corporation contracted by the UN to provide monitors for the Bosnian police. An issue in the early scenes is the way characters appear and disappear from the story. Benedict Cumberbatch appears fleetingly, on screen for less than five minutes in the whole film. He is vaguely described as a commander, presumably working for Democra but this is not made clear and it is a weakness in the film that characters are introduced but not identified sufficiently for the audience to get a handle on them. Belkovac soon gains the attention of Madeline Rees, High Commissioner of Human Rights, warmly and effortlessly played by Vanessa Redgrave, who offers Belkovac the job of Head of Gender Affairs. At this point the film feels like it is ready to begin and the reintroduction of one of the girls from the opening scene, Raya, starts Belkovac on her journey into the underworld.Raya's been badly beaten up, there were were no jobs in Germany for the girls, their trail west stopped at a whorehouse in Bosnia. Belkovac goes to investigate the bar where Raya worked. In a simple powerful scene she walks through the empty club and finds wads of American currency, girls' passports, polaroids of sexual abuse and in the back-room filthy mattresses, syringes and a large cage complete with manacles and leg-irons. There is no music, no other characters or dialogue are necessary. The camera follows Belkovac and the audience follows the camera. The Whistleblower is at its best in scenes like this. The visual style of the rest of the film is also established in the bar scene. Darkness and shadow dominate from now on. As Belkovac becomes enlightened the story gets darker. At a shelter Belkovac first hears the term human trafficking and is made aware that the trafficking started after the war ended and the UN had arrived yet Belkovac still doesn't quite seem to get it; there is a tendency in the film for other characters to have to spell things out for her, maybe this gets information across to the audience but it does leave one wondering was she this naïve in real life?The second half of the film is dominated by the futility of her work and the suffering of the girls she is trying to save. The forces that really control Bosnia reveal themselves in the increasing violence done to the girls and the backlash against Belkovac inside Democra. In the shortest and best written scene she is interviewed by a Democra official, John Blakely, a subtle, hostile performance by William Hope. Belkovac leaves the meeting realising she is alone. The use of camera focus to emphasise her loneliness and almost paranoid state of mind is very effective.As time runs out for Belkovac she has one chance to still make a difference. She learns that Raya is being held at a bar nearby and, in the emotional climax of the film, she goes there to persuade Raya and the other girls to take a chance and leave with her. It's a powerful scene, Rachel Weisz is brilliant as her appeals fail and her impotence is finally revealed. While Raya sinks back into the shadows of the bar Belkovac staggers outside. Neither of them have anywhere left to go. The last section of the film is quiet. Belkovac has realised that her police work has failed and that she must become the whistleblower. She gets away with the evidence, makes it to London and tells her story. Rachel Weisz will get all the plaudits for her performance. She plays the honest cop in dishonest times up against odds she only slowly begins to comprehend. Her increasing horror at what she discovers is matched by her determination and commitment. Weisz plays the role with energy and strength but her performance never gets in the way of the story. The other actors are really not on screen long enough. Vanessa Redgrave is especially underused. Her acting is real quality, delivered through her voice and eyes, her charisma adds another level to the film. Her scenes with Rachel Weisz are a fascinating contrast of styles, with Weisz a more physical actor, more expressive and although some of the dialogue is not the strongest Vanessa Redgrave never sounds like she is reading from a script at all. Roxana Condurache is especially good as Raya, she seems to physically change as she suffers and by the end she is in a permanent cringe, unwilling even to raise her head, the look on her face says she knows she's trapped.A powerful story and a strong cast drive The Whistleblower and Larysa Kondracki directs her first feature film with style and imagination. The use of blur, focus and shadow is never overdone and effectively convey the isolation of the characters. She keeps a good balance between this subjectivism and the stark reality of the violence that underlies everything. However, the script is uneven, and some of the devices used to move the plot forward are clichéd yet the film does not let us forget that Raya is dead, the girls are still in slavery, no-one from the UN was ever prosecuted. The Whistleblower ends on a downbeat but truthful note.

This is one of the reviews where the movie making takes a backseat. The review basically is about the issue that the movie covers. To be honest, that is what I am going to do as well. While I watched this movie, I was extremely engrossed. The acting and direction did not really matter much, though I would say they were quite good. It was a perfectly woven story which start at a relatively gentle pace, then picks up in speed and continues with the tempo till the end. It conveys the idea that normal looking people can indulge in horrible acts when there is lack of accountability or fear of the law catching up. And after they have started, they get so sucked into the system, that they can easily act as professional criminals. The movie talks about a US police women who goes to US as a peace- keeping monitor. She finds herself in the middle of gross corruption, prejudice, plight of women and outright criminality. She gets sucked into the gender affairs office after she manages to get justice for a woman who had been badly abused by her husband. At the gender affairs office she comes across cases of trafficking of numerous east European women and later discovers that UN personnel and her colleagues are themselves involved. They are involved not just in exploitation but actual trafficking itself. The story moves around how she is threatened to shut up and how she fights back and the fate of some of the trafficked girls. It is a moving performance. But as I mentioned earlier, the review is more about the issues that the movie raises and not necessarily about the acting and direction. And the worst part is that the movie is based on a true story.

As one gets older it gets harder and harder to be shocked with the state of humanity." The Whistleblower", gripping and unflinching thriller manages just that,to shock beyond comprehension. We all know that wars awaken the worst in people, that thin veneer of civility scratches very fast or that the deprived among us quickly seize the opportunity to do abominable things, usually under the sickening guise of patriotism. But what can we say when the peacekeepers and the human rights groups take sadistic advantage of already devastated people. Somehow that seems even more sociopathic than your run of the mill war criminal. And these creatures didn't even get punished. They are back to their perfect families and church pews. The trouble is that these awakened monsters will have hard time pretending to be normal. Pandora's box is open. Are we that naive or just that reckless? We'll find out. Every fire that doesn't get put out on time burns everything in sight.