The Whistleblower (2011)

Pretty Good

Just perfect...

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

This movie clearly shows how UN, USAID, IFOR, IPTF, Democra and many other international organizations were involved in human trafficking of underage girls in Bosnia, their rape, prostitution, torture and murders.Movie is pretty good and very emotional. It's weird that a movie like this didn't receive any awards. Horrible movies with crappy stories win a lot of awards, and this one well made movie, showing a true story, with good production has won zero awards. One of the actresses received a few awards, but not the movie.And IMDb rating of 7.2 is an insult for this movie. Much worse movies have higher rating than this one.I guess telling the truth is still a crime. Even awarding a movie that tells the truth seems to be a crime.

and still does. Its an interesting story with real life characters that are more interesting than fiction. However, the shaky cam, out of focus shots, hyper closeups, and quick cuts made the film too painful to make it anywhere close to half way through the movie. It was a movie that I really wanted to see, but its never going to happen. Its a real shame with the budget of this film that they couldn't afford a tripod, or steady cam rig. Or even a grown up editor. If I walk away from a movie nauseous and with a headache I can't reward the creators with a high score. Viewers aren't spending money on bigger 4k screens hoping for blurry and shaky camera-work. This story, and the real persons involved deserved a better effort than this.

The Whistleblower is a tough but necessary film to sit through. It concerns the UN back in 90's Serbia/Bosnia, a time and place characterized by extreme human savagery and unimaginable cruelty. Now during this brutal conflict, hundreds of young, displaced refugee girls were caught up in the chaos of it all and trapped in sex slavery, which was rampant at the time, creating another tragic blemish in history made worse by the fact that the UN knew well and good what was going on and did little to nothing to stop it. It's heartbreaking material no doubt, but there's a light in the darkness in the form of UN ambassador Kathryn Bolkovac (Rachel Weisz) who can't stand by and watch the corruption continue, confronting her superiors which creates further friction. The thing is, in a time of such wanton crisis, a lot of elements in the equation get written off as collateral damage or acceptable losses tearfully tallied up in barely disguised apathy in service of some greater good. Kathryn's UN boss Bill Hynes (Liam Cunningham in a nice extended cameo) has this reprehensible, all too common outlook and won't do anything to help the imprisoned girls. For a lot of people in Ivory towers of detachment, the plight of less fortunate people may not seem like a cause to get riled up over. Not Kathryn. She won't stand for it, and launches a personal crusade to expose those in power who aid and allow the sex trade to survive, and bring them down. With help from two sympathetic colleagues (David Strathairn and Vanessa Redrave) she navigates the tricky, war torn personal and bureaucratic terrains to try and liberate girls who've barely begun life and have already found themselves in hell. Weisz has an innate compassion in any role we see her in, making her the perfect woman to play this character who risks all she has to save complete strangers from a horrific fate. It should be noted that there are intense scenes of violent sexual abuse here that are super tough to watch, but necessary to impart that importance of the girl's struggle to the audience. It's nice to see true stories about a single person who stands up for many others in the face of pure evil.. gives me hope for our upside down world. PS: watch for a brief cameo from Benedict Cumberbatch.

Rachel Weisz stars as "The Whistleblower" in this 2010 film also starring Vanessa Redgrave, Monica Belluci, David Strathairn, and Roxana Condurache.This is based on a true story about Kathryn Bolkovac, a Nebraska policewoman who accepts a job as U.N. peacemaker in Bosnia. Almost immediately the powers that be are impressed with her work, and she is given a promotion.However, their adoration of her quickly ends when she learns that the human trafficking going on in the country involves contractors and diplomats with diplomatic immunity. She has no idea who to trust.Absolutely horrible scenes showing how these sex slaves are forced to live and how they are punished if they talk.The acting is very good, with Rachel Weisz carrying the burden, giving an emotional, strong performance. I saw her with her husband, Daniel Craig, on Broadway in a play, Betrayed. She is stunning, absolutely gorgeous. As you will see in this, she doesn't depend on her looks when she's acting.Recommended if you have a strong stomach. This is an important issue that doesn't get enough attention, and apparently a lot of the so-called "good guys" are involved in it.Blink and you miss him, but Benedict Cumberbatch plays an American soldier with a few lines of dialogue.