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Friday, August 12, 2011
MOVIE REVIEW
The Whistleblower
Fighting White Slavery + Political Cover-Ups In Bosnia
Rachel Weisz as Kathryn Bolkovac in Larysa Kondracki's drama "The Whistleblower".
Sophie Giraud/Samuel Goldwyn Films
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
FOLLOW
Friday,
August 12, 2011
"The Whistleblower" marks Larysa Kondracki's potent directorial debut, and the
drama packs a lingering stomach punch. Written by Ms. Kondracki and Ellis
Kirwan and based on Kathryn Bolkovac's book of her first-person accounts of
United Nations and international community cover-ups of sex trafficking in
Bosnia-Hercegovina in the aftermath of the 1994 civil war, "The Whistleblower"
is a fierce, urgent look at women under siege physically and politically.
Rachel Weisz powers "The Whistleblower" as Ms. Bolkovac, a Lincoln, Nebraska
police officer turned U.N. peacekeeper on a stint in Bosnia as the war there
quells. Bolkovac is Head of Gender Relations, protecting women who are
casualties of the Serb-Croat conflict. She uncovers a
kidnapping/sex-trafficking/prostitution ring operated and engaged in by some in
her team and international police agencies, under the auspices of a British
corporation with contractor ties to the U.S. government. When most of her
male colleagues and superiors turn a blind eye to the atrocities, Bolkovac goes
it alone, calling out the perpetrators in a David-versus-Goliath battle while
her own safety and job security is increasingly compromised.
As unsettling and grim an experience as you'll have all year in a movie theater,
"The Whistleblower" shines a harsh, brutal and much-needed spotlight on the
torture and savage violence against women and cover-up of white slavery.
The events are shocking and appalling. Ms. Kondracki tells the story
directly, crisply and bluntly. Sometimes her camera wanders too much for
the sake of style and tension-building but the film's total impact is clear and
unwavering. The truth it pursues echoes the real-life events, many of
which were far harsher than this R-rated film shows.
I found Rachel Weisz ("The Constant Gardener") to be so real, compelling and
resolute as Kathryn Bolkovac that I was gripped and riveted by her strength and
fearlessness. She's compassionate, brave, heroic and thoroughly persuasive
without being overly righteous or canned. Her title character is a
muscular moral figure in dimension, not size, and physically smaller than the
real Ms. Bolkovac, ironically a more imposing figure than Ms. Weisz.
This tense film ties Ms. Bolkovac's personal custody battle for her daughter in
a meaningful way: the director divulges the custody information to ground
Kathryn's stake in the events that her colleagues willfully ignore or
participate in. Some may argue that the custody subplot is a throwaway but
its inclusion is wholly relevant, informing us that Bolkovac isn't a robotic,
gung-ho action figure. Bolkovac's outrage is acute and sincere, partly
fomented in surrogacy and second chance to do right, to atone personally while
seeking justice on a larger scale. The second chance she gets is presented
in her promise to protect two young girls who fear their safety in Bosnia.
Never sparing time for sentiment, "The Whistleblower" exposes Kathryn Bolkovac's
personal shortcomings. She's human in a land of the inhumane.
There's a moral equivalency in her cause to her personal affairs and
professional travails, and Ms. Weisz uncovers this high-wired balance moment by
moment in a smart, sensitive and pulsating way, matching the heartbeat of this
absorbing and unnerving film. Shot by Kieran McGuigan, its cold, abrasive
look is marvelous and disorienting. There's a "Silence Of The Lambs"-Tak
Fujimoto-bleakness to the film's visuals.
Vanessa Redgrave and David Strathairn have small, key roles as U.N. higher-ups
who face challenges and as much political blow-back as Ms. Bolkovac does.
Ms. Redgrave gives "The Whistleblower" gravitas and Mr. Strathairn its moderated
nobility. Ms. Kondracki's self-assured film gets twisty, but its
atmosphere never lets up or lets you down. On occasion there's a fine line
between some of the graphic events glimpsed and a few of those in
"Hostel Part
II", but their context in "The Whistleblower" is unambiguous, neither
glossy nor gratuitous.
"The Whistleblower", an intense experience, isn't designed to let anyone breathe
or exhale easily. I had a literal headache after seeing it, but a headache
of conscience, a reminder of how pervasive and continuous the trafficking of
women remains, whether in Africa, Europe, Asia or America. (It's risky to
say this but the years-long nightmare
endured by Jaycee Dugard in California may be
"rivaled" by the systemic inhumanity in the events of Ms. Kondracki's film.)
A horror film in its own right, when "The Whistleblower" concludes you feel a
fleeting triumph and immense despair: that Kathryn Bolkovac's courage and
bravery makes a real difference but an infinitesimal dent in the evils being
perpetrated and the unholy alliances backing them. It's deeply sobering
but absolutely necessary viewing.
With: Nikolaj Lie Klaas, Monica Bellucci, Anna Anissimova, Roxana Condurache,
Rayisa Kondracki, David Hewlett, Jeanette Hain, Paula Schramm, Alexandru
Potocean, Benedict Cumberbatch, William Hope, Coca Bloos, Luke Treadaway.
"The Whistleblower" is
rated R by the Motion Picture
Association Of America for disturbing violent content including a brutal sexual
assault, graphic nudity and language. The
film's running time is one hour and 52 minutes.
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