The Whistleblower is a 2010 Canadian biographical drama film directed by Larysa Kondracki and starring Rachel Weisz. Kondracki and Eilis Kirwan wrote the screenplay, which was inspired by the story of Kathryn Bolkovac, a Nebraska police officer who was recruited as a United Nations peacekeeper for DynCorp International in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1999. While there, she discovered a Bosnian sex trafficking ring serving and facilitated by DynCorp employees, with international peacekeepers looking the other way. Bolkovac was fired and forced out of the country after attempting to shut down the ring. She took the story to BBC News in the UK and won a wrongful dismissal lawsuit against DynCorp.
Kondracki wanted her debut film to concern human trafficking, and she encountered Bolkovac's story in college. She and Kirwan struggled to obtain financial support for the project. Eight years after Kondracki decided to produce the film, she secured funding and cast Weisz in the lead role. The Whistleblower a co-production of Canada, Germany, and the United States was filmed in Romania from October to December 2009.
The Whistleblower premiered on 13 September 2010 at the Toronto International Film Festival, and Samuel Goldwyn Films distributed the film in theaters in the United States. The film was advertised as a fictionalization of events occurring during the late 1990s. Kondracki said that the facts are broadly accurate, but some details were omitted for the film; for example, a three-week "breaking-in" period for trafficking victims was not shown.
The film received mixed reviews. The performances by Weisz and her co-stars were praised, but the intense violence depicted in several scenes was debated by critics, with some calling it exploitative. Kondracki and Weisz responded that what happened in Bosnia had been toned down for the film. The Whistleblower received several awards and nominations, including three nominations at the 2012 Genie Awards. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hosted a screening of the film and promised action would be taken to prevent further instances of human trafficking. The Guardian reported that other UN officials attempted to downplay the events depicted and that initiatives against trafficking in Bosnia were aborted.
Plot Kathryn Bolkovac is a police officer from Lincoln, Nebraska, who accepts an offer to work with the UNPOL in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina for a private contractor called Democra Security (a thinly veiled allusion to DynCorp International). After successfully advocating for a Muslim woman who experienced domestic abuse, Kathryn is appointed head of the department of gender affairs.
Raya, a young Ukrainian woman, and her friend Luba are sold to a Bosnian sex-trafficking ring by a relative. Raya escapes with Irka, another girl forced into prostitution, and they are sent to a women's shelter for victims of human trafficking. While investigating their case, Kathryn uncovers a large-scale sexual slavery ring utilized by international personnel (including Americans).
Kathryn persuades Raya and Irka to testify against their traffickers in court, guaranteeing their safety; however, an indifferent UN official drops Irka at the border between Bosnia and Serbia when she cannot produce a passport. Although Kathryn rescued Irka from the woods, Irka is too afraid to proceed with the trial. Meanwhile, Raya is recaptured by the traffickers after a corrupt peacekeeper tips them off. To deter other girls from running away and talking to the authorities, the traffickers make an example out of Raya by brutally raping her with a metal pipe in front of them.
When she brings the scandal to the attention of the UN, Kathryn discovers that it has been covered up to protect lucrative defense and security contracts. However, she finds allies in her investigation: Madeleine Rees, head of the Human Rights Commission, and internal-affairs specialist Peter Ward. As her investigation continues, Kathryn is met with threats on her answering machine and dead ends when higher-ups override and close all the Internal Affairs cases. Still, she continues to try to find Raya and finally locates her on a raid, but Raya refuses to come with her. A few days later, Raya is found dead, having been shot in the head by one of the traffickers, Ivan.
Kathryn sends an email to fifty senior mission personnel detailing her findings; she is then fired from her job. One night, Kathryn enters Democra Security to gather evidence of the sex trafficking, but is cornered by Ward and another employee. She is forced to hand the evidence to Ward, but it turns out to be a distraction planned by both him and Kathryn. They succeed in escaping before Kathryn is deported from the country where she brings her evidence to BBC News in the UK.
The final credits note that after Kathryn's departure, a number of peacekeepers were sent home (though none faced criminal charges due to immunity laws), and that the U.S. continues doing business with private contractors like Democra Security (including billion-dollar contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan).
Cast
Production Writing
The Whistleblower is based on the experiences of Kathryn Bolkovac, an American police officer who in 1999 was assigned to serve as a peacekeeper with the United Nations in post-war Bosnia. While there, she reportedly discovered a sex-trafficking ring which served and was facilitated by other peacekeepers. Bolkovac was fired after trying to investigate the ring, but later won a wrongful dismissal lawsuit.
Director Larysa Kondracki and co-screenwriter Eilis Kirwan learned of Bolkovac's story while attending Columbia University, eight years before the film's production. Kondracki subsequently devoted significant time to research human trafficking and the sex trade. After Bolkovac sold her the film rights for $100, she resolved to adapt the story for the screen. Financing for the project was initially difficult to secure, although the situation improved after Rachel Weisz was cast as Bolkovac. "I was young and naïve," Kondracki said of her initial attempts to secure funding. "I thought: 'Of course they're going to make my film. It's brilliant!'"
The Whistleblower was described as a "fictionalized dramatic presentation" of a late-1990s scandal. The producers based it on Bolkovac's experiences, rather than on her memoir. Vanessa Redgrave played Madeleine Rees, a UN human-rights official ("one of the film's few heroic characters") who helps Bolkovac uncover the sex trade. Raya (Roxana Condurache) and Luba (Paula Schramm), two Ukrainian young women who are trafficked into Bosnia, are the primary representations of the trafficking victims encountered by Bolkovac. Neither is based on a particular person; they are composites of young women forced to work in Bosnian brothels. Kondracki's younger sister, Rayisa, also played a trafficking victim. For legal reasons the pseudonym "Democra Security" was used for DynCorp International, the organization whose employees reportedly sexually enslaved the women.
Although the producers kept the film factual, they debated how much to include. Details on the bureaucracy were removed. Kondracki said, "It was too much information and, frankly, people were bored." Another concern was how much violence against the sex-trafficking victims should be depicted in the film. Kondracki chose to bluntly portray the inhumane treatment of the young women, which she described as accurate representations of what happened. This included a graphic scene in which Raya is raped with a metal pipe after her escape and recapture. Weisz thought the reality had been toned down, "In real life there were girls doing this as young as 8 years old." Kondracki agreed, saying that she had lightened the events depicted out of fear that viewers would "tune it out":
Kondracki said that her goal for The Whistleblower was "information and exposure" on human trafficking. She said, "No one is putting pressure on governments to stop it, and there is no accountability. It's laziness."
Filming The Whistleblower is a Canadian–German co-production. Weisz received the script from producer Amy Kaufman in 2007. Since she was pregnant with her son at the time, she initially turned down the offer. She said the story haunted her, and she later contacted Kaufman to ask if the project was still available. She signed on in August 2009, and shooting began in October 2009.
Bolkovac visited the set in Bucharest, Romania, where most of the movie was filmed. Weisz said that she made a point to spend "every waking moment" with her to accurately portray her. Weisz and Bolkovac are dissimilar in appearance: the former is dark-haired and slight, and the latter is "blond and much more voluptuous" and "much taller". As a result, the actress focused on emulating Bolkovac's accent and determination. Bolkovac later said she commended the choice to portray her and appreciated Weisz's efforts to be accurate.
Filming took around six weeks, relatively short for a thriller; Weisz said most take about three months to complete. Producers used hand-held cameras and had a lower budget than usual for the genre. Location filming took place in Eastern Europe, predominantly Romania. Scenes set in UN buildings were filmed in Toronto. Most outdoor scenes are set at night; daytime shots often appear bleak, gray and overcast. This, coupled with a grainy texture, helped create a documentary feel.
Weisz had to separate herself emotionally from the atrocities depicted in the film. "It's something you learn," she said. "It's true between 'action' and 'cut,' and after 'cut' it's just not true anymore." Bolkovac echoed Weisz's sentiments, adding that distancing oneself emotionally is a necessity when working on a police force. However, the producers wanted the audience to be affected by scenes depicting brutal treatment of the women forced into prostitution, and the character of Raya was created to give a human face to the victims. Much of the rape scene was cut after its brutality caused a viewer to faint during the film's first screening in Toronto. Weisz responded:
Themes
The Whistleblower focuses on sexual slavery, human trafficking, and corruption. Kondracki wanted her first project to concern sex trafficking but was unsure how to create a moving, original plot. Her mother was born in Ukraine, and she was aware of what she described as the country's "epidemic" of trafficking. Victor Malarek's book The Natashas inspired her to produce a film on the subject. She said of her initiative being a challenge, "No one wants to watch a film of an enslaved girl being raped for two hours." Bolkovac's experiences gave Kondracki a framework for the film and added the themes of corruption and wide-scale cover-ups. Film critic Rex Reed said that the abuse of power featured prominently in The Whistleblower; a number of government officials participate in the sex trade or turn a blind eye to it (including peacekeepers, UN members and mercenaries). Wallace Baine of the Santa Cruz Sentinel wrote that these aspects' portrayal made the movie "slippery and true-to-life". She said, "There are clear and vivid monsters in this film, but there are also those existing in the shades-of-gray middle, nice-enough guys tolerating crimes of unspeakable barbarity." Justice, another prominent theme, does not materialize by the end. The sex trafficking victim Raya is killed, and none of the peacekeepers who participated in the trafficking are prosecuted (although several are sent home). According to Baine, viewers are left with the impression that "the worst violence in Bolkovac's story was the violence done to justice".