The Whistleblower is based on the real-life story of Kathy Bolkovac, who uncovered and exposed repeated instances of UN and private police force complicity in sex trafficking in post-war Bosnia. The film stars Rachel Weisz, Vanessa Redgrave, and David Strathairn.
The Movie
The Whistleblower is based on the real story of Kathryn Bolkovac, a Nebraska cop who accepts a short-term, high paying job with a Blackwater-like security company in post-war Bosnia. The job is to provide basic police protection and investigation in coordination with the UN, while the country tries to get back on its feet. As she inevitably finds out, violence and corruption are rampant, and she soon finds herself trying to tip the scales of justice back in the favor of those she sees marginalized and ignored.
It doesn't take long, however, for her to also uncover a more damning sex trafficking operation, and one that involves the complicit help of several security and UN personnel. In an area where laws are delicate-to-breaking and money is the main thing that talks, Kathryn quickly finds out how corrupted "security" can become, and the drastic measures that can be taken to keep it and the incoming money under wraps. Sex trafficking and slave brothels are dealt with in graphic detail, so sensitive viewers should be warned.
The film proceeds in a fairly straightforward, linear fashion. We start with a bit of backstory on Kathryn and the circumstances that led her to take on the short-term assignment. After that we quickly see her learning the ropes of her job and realizing where some corners are being cut, which more and more leads her deeper into the cover-up. The film does a good job of balancing the needs of communicating the real problems of the area without resulting to Traffic-esque over-explanation. The visuals provide more than sufficient elaboration on the injustices in question. There is a tacked-on – and frankly unnecessary, other than the fact that it apparently actually happened – love story, but the film rightly breezes past this to more pressing matters.
Weisz is commanding in the lead role and manages to somehow remain forceful, vulnerable, driven, and helpless, emotions that often occur in tandem as her character's abilities are stretched and exhausted. This is her film, and while the rest of the cast is able and effective, the focus remains fixed on her moral center and her actions. Because of this focus, some of the other characters come off as rather one-dimensional, regardless of the prestige of who delivers the lines. But Weisz commands your attention, and all of the performances still positively shape the whole of the picture.
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