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The Whistleblower Our rating: Your rating: 1 2 3 4 Your Comments: see all MPAA rating: R (for disturbing violent content including a brutal sexual assault, graphic nudity and language) Genre: Drama Theater release: June 23, 2011 by Samuel Goldwyn Films Directed by: Larysa Kondracki Runtime: 1 hour 58 minutes Cast: Rachel Weisz (Kathryn Bolkovac), Vanessa Redgrave (Madeleine Rees), David Strathairn (Peter Ward), Roxana Condurache (Raya) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

Movies about issues as tragic and uncomfortable as sex trafficking are tricky. You can make a wonderfully crafted, informative film—that no one comes to see. Moviegoers may know they should, they just don't want to.

That's just one of the reasons the story of Kathy Bolkovac is so amazing. Her story provides a somewhat palatable entry point into a horrifying reality. We like stories of whistleblowers. We root for these lone soldiers fighting the system. They appeal to us in a time when we often feel at the mercy of bigger forces beyond our control—the national debt crisis, the gridlocked political system, the wildly fluctuating DOW.

Bolkovac, a real woman, was a Nebraska cop who took a job as a U.N. peacekeeper in Bosnia in 1999. Her ex-husband had gotten a job out of state and was taking their daughter, whom he had custody of, with him. Unable to find a job in that area, Bolkovac decided to try the peacekeeping gig for six months to earn some money—$100,000 tax-free, to be exact—and buy her some more time to find employment near her daughter.

Bolkovac went to this war-torn land with noble intentions of helping to restore order. And when she got there, she quickly learned that the even greater need was rescuing young women from the sex trafficking industry.

Rachel Weisz as Kathy Bolkovac

Bolkovac joined forces with the Women's Rights and Gender Unit, and began to investigate the trafficking rings operating out of the local bars. As if the horrors of young Eastern European women being lured to Bosnia under the auspices of legitimate jobs in hotels and then forced into prostitution and kept in slave-like conditions wasn't bad enough, Bolkovac discovered that their customers included U.N. peacekeepers and international military forces—the very men who were supposed to be protecting these girls.

As Bolkovac continued to investigate, gather evidence, and voice her concern, she was met with greater and greater pushback from independent security contractors, peacekeepers, and military personnel. Thankfully, this resistance didn't soften her outrage or her resolve.

The Whistleblower captures most of this drama—some of the horrific abuse and degradation softened, some of the names changed for legal protection. Of the countless victims Bolkovac investigated, the filmmakers chose one to represent the whole. We see Raya, a young teenage girl living in a poor town in Ukraine, intrigued by the prospect of good money in a hotel job in Bosnia, brokered by a trusted local.

David Strathairn as Peter Ward

The next time we see her she is badly beaten up, sleeping on filthy mattresses on the floor of a bar's back room with about a dozen other girls. Photographs on the wall of the bar hint at the degrading treatment they've all endured, the sexual acts they've been forced to perform for money they are told will eventually pay off their "debt," a false hope some of the girls hang onto with frantic desperation.

Raya pings back and forth between custody, captivity, and an odd limbo in between—a victim of police raids done for show, and a legal system ill-equipped to handle the intricacies of trafficking. There's no safe house for her to stay in once she's free and tentatively agreeing to testify. There's no shelter to treat her wounds—both physical and psychological. And so she is recaptured by her traffickers, and brutally punished for getting away and speaking with authorities—made an example to prevent the others from fleeing as well.

Vanessa Redgrave as Madeleine Rees

Make no mistake, The Whistleblower isn't an easy film to watch. But the horrors aren't in your face. And Larysa Kondracki, the director who spent two years researching the film in Eastern Europe and working closely with Bolkovac, walks a careful line between showing us the devastating realities of trafficking and then offering us hope in Bolkovac's dogged attempts to blow the whistle on all the corruption around her.

The talented cast also keeps us engaged. Rachel Weisz is wonderful as Bolkovac, a no-nonsense civil servant who is stunned at what she walks into. Vanessa Redgrave is a needed touch of strength and warmth as her mentor Madeleine, and David Strathairn is at his government thriller best as Peter Ward, an Internal Affairs agent. Raya is heart-breaking as the young victim.

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