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2011, 08-08:
Review of film: “THE WHISTLEBLOWER”
This 112-minute drama is based on various TRUE incidents, tho some characters & situations are “composites” & the like...
... Kathryn Bolkovac (RACHEL WEISZ) is a twice-divorced police officer in Nebraska. To better be able to help care for her daughter who lives with an “ex”, she keeps trying to get a feasible better-paying job, but has no success...
... Then, she hears about well-paying jobs in EUROPE: In April 1992 thru December, 1995, there was a horrible ethnic-based war (between Muslim Bosniaks, Serbs & Croats) in the old BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA section of what was Yugoslavia in the central Balkans...
... Rachel decides to APPLY for a job working under the auspices of the UNITED NATIONS in Bosnia in the 1999 aftermath of the war. She GETS the job, which is technically run by a PRIVATE British company called “Democra” in this movie...
... The employees work in U.N. uniforms, & consist of people from numerous different countries... They at times travel around together in buses...
... Tho the war had been technically “over” for some time, the Sarajevo region where she worked was still considerably in RUINS & very TENSE due to continuing ethnic clashes & resentments...
... Rachel naturally tends to “interact” a lot with the other AMERICANS working there, such as Fred Murray (DAVID HEWLETT)...
... Rachel believes in doing a GOOD job, & especially wants to represent the interests of the underprivileged in helping others... She finds there’s loads of “PRIVATE” agendas going on in both the country & in those supposedly there to “HELP” the people...
... She finds it necessary to “butt heads” with various bureaucratic people such as Laura Leviani (MONICA BELLUCCI) who seems uneager to go very far to assist people in certain circumstances...
... At one point, in the midst of setting up “road-blocks” to what Rachel is trying to achieve, unenthusiastic Monica insists that they have a “system that WORKS” there in Bosnia...
... There are also OTHERS who aren’t “happy” with Rachel’s analytical actions, such as Nick Kaufman (BENEDICT CUMBERPATCH)...
... Rachel’s good work brings her to the attention of Madeleine Rees (VANESSA REDGRAVE), who’s a sort of “big-shot” in the U.N. operation there. Vanessa’s support helps lead to Rachel’s being appointed head of a department that’s supposed to help WOMEN in the country (who tend to be BADLY treated by the men)...
... Eventually, Rachel is introduced to another high-positioned U.N. person there, Peter Ward (DAVID STRATHAIRN). He seems to be helpful, as is a “LOCAL” Police man...
... But, as Rachel does her work, she finds some “STRANGE” things are going on: There are a number of young women who are employed in various “niteclubs” that really seem to be BROTHELS where the women are sold & frequently beaten-up & otherwise mistreated...
... Rachel is quite disturbed when she learns that U.N. people at times FREQUENT such illegal criminal operations...
... One of the women who’s been found in a prohibited club is named Raya (ROXANA CONDURACHE), who relates to Rachel that she was in-effect forced into prostitution...
... Rachel tries to help Roxana & her friend by promising that she’ll “PROTECT” them if they’ll formally speak-up & “REPORT” people who force them to do illegal work & the like...
... But, as the friendly local police guy is helping Rachel by taking the girls to a supposedly “safe” area, his van is purposely RAMMED & the girls are taken away from him, in what was obviously an “INSIDE-job” SETUP by those who KNEW Rachel’s plans...
... Even worse, there were signs the girls were forced BACK under the control of the criminals running the illegal operations, which seemed to be “PROTECTED” by various “authorities”...
... The local cop privately tells Rachel that there’s clearly a “LEAK” at the U.N. operation run by Democra, because the car-rammers “KNEW” what was going on in his transporting the girls... Rachel then starts to INVESTIGATE things...
... She checks her home location, & finds a WIRETAP (which she removes) in her phone...
... As she examines things, Rachel finds MORE & MORE troublesome facts about the “TIE-INS” between various Democra / U.N. people & the criminal elements in the area... That’s one reason the “Tagline” for the film is, “Nothing is more DANGEROUS than the TRUTH”...
... Rachel gives some of the information on her finds to VANESSA, who urges her to talk to DAVID, which she does...
... About the only “regular” U.N. co-worker that Rachel feels she can confide in is a Dutch guy named Jan Ven Der Velde (NIKOLAJ LIE KAAS), who’s also a lover of hers...
... But, while Nikolaj is supportive of her basic efforts, he warns her to take more CARE re what she’s doing, because there are clearly more “LEAKS” & problems involved with the wide-ranging “fingers” of the “cooperation” between the criminals & certain people involved with the Democra / U.N. undertaking....
... A local U.N. “top-dog” makes clear to a subordinate that he wants Rachel’s work STOPPED, as what she’s uncovering (namely, CORRUPTION & systemic COVER-UPS) could prove very dangerous to him & others “involved”...
... The “Big Shot” demands that Rachel be REMOVED from her position of power, & she’s promptly escorted OUT of her office & her entire job position...
... Rachel is deeply UPSET by her dismissal...
... And, once she's outside, Rachel wants to find some way to retrieve important FILES she’d left in her office about people like the WOMEN who’d been put into prostitution slavery by the criminals, etc...
... Will Rachel be able to RETRIEVE her vital documents?... Will a person who’d seemed to be a “friend” to her causes turn out to be a “TURNCOAT”?...
... Will Rachel or anyone else be able to demand “ACCOUNTABILITY” by the DEMOCRA & U.N. & criminal elements involved in what she’d uncovered?...
... What will happen to people by the “END” of the story?...
... The Landmark theatre chain sent its Filmclub members an exclusive letter from the first-time director of this movie, LARYSA KONDRACKI. In that, she tells how she 10 years ago came upon the story of the real Kathryn Bolkovac who’d originally EXPOSED the U.N.’s cover-ups concerning the Bosnia operation...
... Larysa told of having contacted Kathryn (living with the real Jan in the Netherlands), & set to work writing a SCRIPT... After talking to various “corporate” entities, she eventually decided to try to start the film as an “INDIE” project, which gained “traction” once RACHEL came on-board as the lead...
... I saw a screening of this film with a lady friend of mine who has a military background & 3 children, & who could thus especially “UNDERSTAND” the ramifications of various elements of the story. She was very FAVORABLY impressed with what we’d seen...
... As I commented to her, it was somewhat “maddening” to me, the way the character of Kathryn (Rachel) was so often sort of “OBLIVIOUS” to the realities of what was really “GOING-ON”:
... The character is often overly “TRUSTING” of those around her-- despite knowing how “bureaucracies” work (or DON’T work), & knowing how irresponsible it is to ever “PROMISE” things to vicitims (especially re how they’ll be “PROTECTED” in a “3rd party” situation)...
... Kathryn knows that her phone’s been TAPPED, that certain U.N. people have been behaving ILLEGALLY-- yet she keeps TRUSTING people she logically SHOULDN’T have faith in, including leaving vital files in her office behind an easy-to-break-open lock in a cabinet, etc...
... But, unfortunately, there ARE people who often behave UNWISELY, expecting too much from a supposed inherent “GOODNESS” of those around them... So, while it’s “EXASPERATING” to observe, it’s also PLAUSIBLE...
... RACHEL does a FINE job in handling the multifaceted areas of her role-- from being a caring MOTHER, to an administrator trying to help less fortunate people, & then trying to run an INVESTIGATION and EXPOSE the wrong-doing of those around her (covering the governments, the hired “CONTRACTORS” given “special consideration” by various governmental people, the criminal elements & others)...
... The other main characters (such as Vanessa, both Davids, Nikolaj, Monica, & others such as numerous lesser-known European actors) also are quite GOOD in their (considerably smaller) roles...
... It’s humanistic + a “EXPOSE” / THRILLER, &, because of its overall basic effectiveness, I’m rating it at 8.0 out of 10 stars...
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