The Whistleblower (MA). Director: Larysa Kondracki. Starring: Rachel Weisz, Vanessa Redgrave, Monica Bellucci, David Strathairn, Roxana Condurache. 107 minutes
In 2002 former Nebraska police officer and UN International Police Force monitor Kathryn Bolkovac claimed victory in an unfair dismissal case against her employer, DynCorp — a private company with a lucrative UN contract to hire and train officers for duty in post-war Bosnia.
Bolkovac's dismissal was due to her making a 'protected disclosure' (i.e. 'blowing the whistle') against alleged corruption and cover-ups among some of her peacekeeper colleagues. They, she reported, had been paying for prostitutes and participating in sex-trafficking.
The Whistleblower is Kathryn's story recast as big-screen thriller. A disclaimer at the beginning clarifies that some characters are fictional or composites of real-life people. It's a film designed to entertain and engage the viewer emotionally, rather than to inform. In this, it succeeds.
Not after it first wobbles, though. Kathryn (well played by English actress Weisz) is shown to be a conscientious cop who, following a marriage breakdown, has lost custody of her teenage daughter. Her ex-husband and his new partner are now moving interstate, daughter in tow.
Pained by the prospect of this separation, Kathryn has already tried and failed to get a transfer closer to their new home. The generous six-month contract on offer for the Bosnia job suggests another means of affording the move, albeit only following a more pronounced period of separation.
The film's perfunctory treatment of these familial and career frustrations makes Kathryn's decision to go to wartorn Bosnia seem too flippant to believe.
The Whistleblower soon steadies though. Once in Bosnia Kathryn's motivation shifts from financial compensation to compassion, and the plot gains momentum. Appalled by the lack of interest and bureaucratic inertia of her employer Democra Corps (a fictional stand-in for DynCorp) in the face of racial and domestic violence against women, she casts herself as crusader for their cause.
This proves to be merely the embryo of the greater — and more dangerous — fight for justice she is about to face. Gradually Kathryn begins to encounter evidence of colleagues' involvement with human trafficking. This is the exercise of male power over vulnerable women, writ large. Herself a woman in the midst of a boys club, and a potential threat to the sinister status quo, Kathryn, too, is vulnerable.
The faith she feels for various colleagues and associates, such as