The Whistleblower movie review (2011)

Although "The Whistleblower" is a fictional film, these facts were supported by a British labor tribunal that investigated her claim against DynCorp, finding the corporation's defense "completely unbelievable." That high officials in the U.N. Human Rights Commission also were aware of the sex trafficking is unbelievable to me.

The movie, constructed as a relentless and frightening thriller, stars Rachel Weisz in one of her best performances, portraying Bolkovac as a quiet, intense woman who has heroism thrust upon her by the evidence of her own eyes. Investigating complaints of rape and forced prostitution, she visits private clubs where underage girls are exhibited and fondled, held captive, threatened with death and actually sold to individuals to take and do with what they desired.

These young women were lured to Bosnia under false pretenses. Their passports were taken so they could not escape across borders. Because of the curfews in effect in the area at the time, local citizens could not leave their homes at night, and so the customers at the clubs were, by definition, law-enforcement personnel not under curfew.

In her almost singlehanded investigation, Bolkovac is often seen in scary nighttime situations; walking down a street or entering her apartment seems risky. The movie is not above employing images of female vulnerability to manipulate us, and it succeeds. What makes it so effective is that Weisz doesn't play her character as any species of action heroine, but simply as a competent, dutiful cop who is naive enough to believe her job should be performed by the book. After she comes to know some of the victims personally, after they trust her, the job becomes more of a mission.

David Strathairn co-stars as Peter Ward, one of Bolkovac's few colleagues who seems trustworthy. Vanessa Redgrave plays Madeleine Rees, a real-life official of the Human Rights Commission, who offers moral support and also warnings that Bolkovac's life may be in danger. Monica Bellucci is Laura Levin, a bureaucrat who refuses to help repatriate young women, because, in cruel logic, they have no passports. And David Hewlett is Fred Murray, Bolkovac's superior officer, who is himself part of the cover-up.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7s7vGnqmempWnwW%2BvzqZmq52mnrK4v46tn55lp522tMDLnpmlp6eav25%2Bj2po