The Whistleblower [HD]

Fighting human rights violations
"The Whistleblower," based on a true story, is a gritty movie about sexual trafficking in Bosnia. Kathryn Bolkovac (Rachel Weisz), a Nebraska cop, is a divorced mom who takes a job with a security contractor for big pay and a short tour in the Balkans. She discovers that ethnic tensions have caused local cops to refuse to investigate domestic violence cases, particularly those involving Muslims. She is promoted and put in charge of gender affairs by a U.N. official (Vanessa Redgrave), but is increasingly frustrated. After building cases against sexual traffickers, she's told they enjoy diplomatic immunity.

Bolkovac is a lone crusader, persuading fearful women to testify against their abusers, bucking diplomatic hypocrisy, and dealing with rampant paranoia. Ms. Weisz heads this topical political thriller, turning in a powerful performance, one of her best. The movie underscores the collateral damage caused by politics and maintaining the delicate balance of world...

A sharp, intellegent political drama that's not easy to watch
The Whistleblower is not a comfortable film to watch, nor is it supposed to be - Rachel Weisz takes on an extremely difficult role here that could have come across as monotone in the hands of someone less capable. I used to think she was a fairly average actress but she's clearly become somebody extremely skilled around challenging material. Some of her final scenes in the film are Oscar-worthy and underscore a number of sickening truths that have been developed throughout the script.

From the first few minutes, it's pretty clear that the story isn't going to have a happy ending and once you see what military contractors and UN officials were conspiring to achieve, it's enough to make you want to write letters to your elected representatives. I haven't read anything to indicate that the situation shown in this film is untrue and it paints an extremely shameful picture of what Westerns organizations were doing while supposedly protecting civilians.

Overall, it's...

Harsh Realities Exposed
THE WHISTLEBLOWER is a film that kicks you in the stomach and then continues to play out the worst possible truths that we'd rather not admit exist. The theme of the film is Human Trafficking, and apparently there are about 2.5 million victims around the world today - young people who are sold into sexual slavery for the financial gain of people from all areas of life, including our own government, the International Practices Task Force, and contracted companies supported by the US Government to rebuild who are assigned to third world countries and countries besieged by or recovering from war, and in our own cities in this country. This film is based on a true story, a story written (and discussed in the bonus track on the DVD) by Kathryn Bolkovac who was transferred from her police job in Lincoln, Nebraska to Bosnia (with the promise of $100,000. and a six month term) to monitor the local Sarajevo police and advise them on proper police procedures. Bolkovac's story was written for...

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