The Whistleblower – Poignant, Gutsy, Topical

Director: Larysa Kondracki

Actors: Rachel Weisz, Monica Bellucci, Vanessa Redgrave

Rating: 4 out of 5

It’s an old cliché which states that the world is what it is not because of bad men, but because of good men who watch and do nothing. We all have a strong sense of personal justice. But ask yourself, if you saw something so wrong with others that it churns your guts, would you poke your nose into it.

Even if you did, how far would you go? Far enough to risk your life and limb?

Kathryn Bolkovac (Rachel Weisz) a US police officer in Bosnia on a UN peacekeeping mission discovers that her own colleagues are involved in a sex and trafficking racket of young women. She interferes, not realizing it to be an international conspiracy. She soon finds herself to be a lone fighter against a system that involves the military, MNCs and governments.

The history of the world is usually about emperors and dictators. But a footnote of history is dominated by misfits who refuse to be mute spectators. They are first coaxed, bribed and then beaten and often killed by the system they threaten.

But make no mistakes, it is these who stands up and blow the whistle, are the ones who count in the end. For they break through impregnable walls, bruised and battered in battle they still carry on and though their head may be cut it remains unbowed to the injustice around. Whatever good exists in the world, it is thanks to a large part due to these maverick whistleblowers who defy even their own puny statures to try the impossible.

This film does both, pays homage to their indomitable courage, and recount their impossible travails.

The film might seem like a distant story of a distant land. But it is as true for India, as it is for Bosnia. Like the UN peacekeepers have diplomatic immunity, the soldiers in places like Kashmir, the North East and Chhatisgarh in India, have laws like AFSPA that indemnify them against any wrong doings on their part.

The result is the Shopian rape and murder case of Kashmir, the Manorama rape and murder case of Manipur and the hundreds of tribal women whose rape by the military in far flung places like Chhattisgarh never makes it to the press.

‘The Whistleblower’ works because it plays like a thriller. It does an extremely good job in building up dramatic tension, even though few creative liberties taken from the real story may sometimes feel improbable.

Rachel Weisz’s right mix of innocent vulnerability and inner strength carries the film forward and gives out the message that justice often needs to be an inside job.

The good thing about American whistle blower films is that a viewer knows beforehand that the protagonist will win in the end. Americans, after all, are known to celebrate success. Reality, however, is slightly different. In the real world, the people in the true story on which the film is based, roam free.

Thankfully this little injustice will not deter those who seek justice for others. For whistleblowers in truth are the vigilante superheroes of the real world. And their superpowers include an indomitable will, a passion for justice and a belief that what they do matters. To these men and women, we truly owe the world.