Kathryn Bolkovac joins the peacekeeping forces of the United Nations but finds that diplomatic immunity brings its own hazards when she witnesses UN troops trafficking in humans for sex.
Film making 22/25
Video 22/25
Audio 21/25
Bonus Features 3/25
Total 70/100
Based on the real life events of Kathryn Bolkovac The Whistleblower stars Rachel Weisz as Kathryn who discovers the ugly truth behind the United Nations peace keeping efforts in war torn Bosnia. Kathryn is recently divorced but a hard working police officer until her ex-husband moves out of state taking her two children with him.
She tries to find a transfer so she can stay near her children but cannot so she finds an opportunity to become a United Nations officer overseas for a good pay check. She works as part of the United Nations peacekeeping forces under contract through a British company called Democra Corp.
The company hired police officers to become United Nations peace keepers and work in war torn Bosnia helping the local police keep the peace and perform police investigations. Kathryn quickly finds out that some crimes are simply ignored like spousal abuse but when she finds women being beaten and used as sex slaves she cannot stand by and watch.
She investigates a particular girls case and finds that United Nations officers are the main customers who are buying the girls and young women at local bars. Kathryn gets the attention of the leader of the UN’s High Commission on Human Rights Madeleine Rees played by Vanessa Redgrave.
With Madeleine’s help Kathryn gets evidence of the crimes being committed under the protection of diplomatic immunity that the peacekeepers hide behind. Kathryn is fired before she can bring about any change other than getting the attention of the crimes to a couple of UN officials but she does sneak out important documents before she leaves the country.
She flees to England where she brings the case to international attention by suing for wrongful termination which brings everything she investigated right out in court. Someone high up in the United Nations has been working to keep this type of thing a secret due to the embarrassment it could bring to the organization.
Not only based on the true events but very closely following them The Whistleblower does an excellent job of conveying to the viewer the horror of the crimes along with the dangers Kathryn faced. The acting is top notch and really brings the drama to the scenes even if the story and direction gets a bit muddled with trying to be a bigger thriller than it actually was.
Kathryn did face a lot of terror inducing moments and I personally could not imagine the panic she felt when she knew that everyone around her either knew what was going on or was part of it. She had several threats to deal with and it is no wonder that after trying her best to help some of the women being traded as slaves she leaves the country.
She did not leave to just escape the possibility of harm though, she went to Great Britain and brought everything she encountered to the public because she knew she had to do something. The film does an excellent job of showing all that happened as well as the main story of real life police officers who use the guise of diplomatic immunity to treat others like slaves.
Video and audio are both very good but not top notch which in this film is about perfect in my opinion, the films grainy texture and sometimes lower quality just highlights the real life events. Video quality is almost a documentary style with scenes often being intentionally shaky and grainy which just adds to the feel and overall quality of the film.
The audio quality is also very good with a great 5.1 surround sound track that delivers enough surround sound to create the feel of being there. The audio voice is clear and you get the good use of surround for the most part but with this lower key thriller there is not real explosive use of the sound field.
Audio and video quality is great and I think if they made things clearer or more vivid it would definitely have ruined the overall tone of the film. Bonus content is lacking with only a single five minute feature looking at the real Kathryn Bolkovac and a few quick interviews with other real people of the incident.
Bonus features could have been exceptional with all kinds of real world news footage of the incident, a court documentary or something. As it is there is only the one but the film is definitely a must see at least as a rental just to understand what happened and what could easily still be going on.
Cops looking for a quick buck by working overseas in a high risk job for the United Nations could get lured into trading humans for sex is mind numbing. The real company behind this, DynCorp, is still working international contracts to “keep the peace” but controversy surrounds the company like a close friend.
Allegedly billions of dollars missing that were supposed to go to Iraqi police training, the sex slave trading brought out here and more dog the company still. It seems every country the company is involved in has its own little incident that gets quickly swept under the rug due to the huge amounts of money and politics, er business as usual attitude.
The Whistleblower tries to bring the truth out about government contractors and this company’s attempt to hide behind their diplomatic immunity. The film is great and with superb acting to show the thriller side of the movie it is well worth a rental but a purchase may be a bit much.
The Whistleblower Movie Website
The Whistleblower: Sex Trafficking, Military Contractors, and One Woman’s Fight for Justice @ Amazon