Michael Ledo Rachel Weisz stars as Kathryn Bolkovac, a Lincoln Nebraska police officer. This is not the savvy Rachel Weisz role we are used to seeing. The beginning of the film tries to dummy down her character. Needing money she accepts a job in Bosnia as an observer, quickly moving up to a position of authority. She uncovers a sex trade scandal which involves the local police as well as her fellow co-workers and several international agencies.Attempting to do the right thing is a challenge especially when the victims fear to cooperate.This is not an exploitation film as the topic might suggest. There are no horrific graphic scenes and the nudity is on Polaroid photos. The script did not build the suspense, drama and excitement as one might expect. The actors were not as convincing as they should have been. Worth a view, but not owning.Parental Guide: F-bomb, sex, nudity.

lavatch 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.

arseniy I have three main points to make: (1) An extra star here is for the subject matter being an ongoing and seldom-covered atrocity (as opposed to yet another Holocaust film or somesuch). (2) I dreaded seeing this to be honest, but it turned out to be well, well worth it. Like many of Weisz's projects. (How surprised I would be if SHE turned out to be a shitty person.) (3) This is the sort of "strong female character" I'll wholeheartedly celebrate. Any day. Instead of the posy bullshit so fashionable these days. Just as douchebags come in both sexes and are equally gross, so do genuinely awesome humans like Bolkovac and Weiz. Maybe one day this difference will become easier for us to recognize.

craig-hopton This is compelling viewing and it's heartrending.It's set in post-war Bosnia and it's a true story about a policewoman from America who is posted there and tries to do what she can to blow the whistle on sex trafficking and slavery.What makes it really heartrending is that she is stopped at every turn by people in authority, including her fellow Americans. She never quite succeeds in rescuing the girls she grows attached to, but she comes agonisingly close.Rachel Weisz plays the policewoman and puts in a good performance. But the real stars of the show were Roxana Condurache and Paula Schramm who played the Ukrainian girls trafficked for sex.Don't expect to have your heart warmed by this film but do expect to find it gripping and to be reminded of the suffering that war torn countries endure even after the war is over.