The Whistleblower

Many films that purport to be about mature themes end up being Oscar baiting crap with a short shelf life. The Whistleblower, released in 2010, is not one of them. After the death of Jeffrey Epstein this year, it feels more important than ever. In impoverished countries all around the world people are being trafficked and exploited by the same group of people who purport to help them.  This film is one of the first pieces of media to address the problem which many even now find too terrible to bear even thinking about.  Their own charity donations and taxpayer dollars are going to sociopaths, rapists, traffickers and pedophiles.

The film is based on the true story of Kathryn Bolkovac who worked as a UN Peacekeeper for Dyncorp International in Bosnia and alerted the public to a human trafficking ring by UN Peacekeepers/Dyncorp there.  The film takes a few liberties changing Dyncorp International’s name to the more benign sounding Democra Security and omitting the child rape aspect as the director thought it was simply too much for audiences to handle.  Even with this attempt to soften the situation many critics still complained that the film was too gratuitous and brutal.  In truth, the film is just too realistic for many people and to sugar coat it even more would have been a disservice to those who endured trafficking.

The film centers around Kathryn Bolkovac (played by Rachel Weisz) trying to save two 18-year-old Ukrainian women named Irka and Raya who are sold into sexual slavery.  Along the way she uncovers the sex trafficking run by her fellow UN peacekeepers dead set on covering it up.  There has been great praise for Rachel Weisz’s role as Bolkovac as she depicted a strong capable woman willing to risk her career and possibly life to reveal these atrocities.  Her character stands as a firm contrast to other cardboard cutout depictions of heroic strong women in Hollywood as she has flaws, she has an affair with a married man and loses custody of her kids for being a workaholic, but still does the right thing even at enormous personal risk.  One thing I noticed is the film tried to play up her capability in uncovering the case when the real Kathryn said that she had heard Dyncorp members blatantly talk about finding kids in front of her and amazingly the crimes were even more out in the open.  The Columbo style investigation work she does helps to provide the film more crime drama and thriller elements however and helps the audience follow how the crimes were carried out.  The characters that aren’t praised as much are the actresses for Raya (played by Roxana Condurache) and Irka (played by Rayisa Kondracki) even though in many ways they play an even more vital role.  They help the audience to understand the reality for those trafficked and why they are so terrified to testify and the hopelessness they feel.  For lesser known actresses they did a fantastic job and deserve a lot of credit in making the film work.  The film also features Benedict Cumbersnatch, who has been in Sherlock, Star Trek, and Dr. Strange in a small role as a peacekeeper.

For all of Bolkovac’s hard work, the peacekeepers all have diplomatic immunity and can never be charged with human sex trafficking.  Abusing their role as benefactor and exploiting those suffering from war and poverty at best got them sent home.  The peacekeepers served as a sociopath’s playground as there were no substantial repercussions even for the worst crimes imaginable.  At best her victory is symbolic. She revealed the information to the public and shined light on the crimes.  The film is all around superb and my only real complaints with it are some of its changes of the true story (such as changing Dyncorp International’s name even though the events in Bosnia are well documented) but had I gone in to the film knowing nothing about the real event it was based on I would genuinely have no criticisms at all.  It is undoubtedly among the best films to come out of Hollywood this decade and possibly the most important.