Film: The Whistleblower

I am going to recommend to you a film that is heart-wrenching, sickening and nightmare- inducing. Just so you're prepared and don't blame me if you see it, note that you are forewarned. As much as it is all of these things, it is equally true, intelligent and very, very important for anyone of a mature and an aware age to see.

The Whistleblower, by director Larysa Kondracki, is about human trafficking, or sex trafficking, which is, according to wikipedia, a "lucrative industry," "the fastest growing criminal industry in the world," and "second only to drug-trafficking as the most profitable illegal industry in the world." 2.5 million people around the world are trafficked today, with that number growing steadily. The film is set in Sarajevo, the capital of post war Bosnia-Herzegovina, in 1999.

The New York Times mostly approaches The Whistleblower as though it is high entertainment, saying that the main character, Kathryn Bolkovac, is "paranoid" (goodness, why would she be; she only has scores of gun-toting pimps and severely twisted UN "peacekeepers" threatening her) and a "party-lover" (she attends only one party during the film). They also say that she is "blindly immune to intimidation." I believe that horror and anger are some of the biggest motivators out there, and that Bolkovac is driven on by her concern for the young women who were victims of the trafficking. As, I hope we all agree, any morally sound person would be. Bolkovac certainly has courage, determination, and a sense that the issue needs to be publicised, even at the cost of losing her job and protection.

The NY Times picks on what they think is a "choppy, fumbling screenplay" rather than focusing on the director's goal, which is to propel this horrific topic into the light. The paper also says that The Whistleblower fizzles at the end because it withholds any sense that justice was done. Perhaps because in reality it wasn't.

Rachel Weisz, as usual, is brilliant and completely owns the part of Kathryn Bolkovac. Benedict Cumberbatch also stars in a very small role in which he plays an American. I'm never sure why these wonderful British actors play Americans. Our accent isn't particularly attractive. He must have thought the movie was very important.

Vanessa Redgrave and David Strathairn also appear.

You can read some of the film reviews here. The New York Times review has some "spoilers"; beware.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human trafficking

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/the-whistleblower-20110804

http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/08/05/movies/the-whistleblower-with-rachel-weisz-review.html

trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ohEeat7Lww

See this movie with lots of comforting things like food, blankets, and tissues. Since I'm at a loss of what to do about this horrible problem in the world, I'm telling you. At least we'll all know and won't have our heads in the sand. Although the roots of this matter lie in large, nearly untackleable things like wars and power struggles between countries, it's really the people in the midst of it all who suffer and who need help.