The Williams Lake Film Club will be screening its next film on Tuesday, Oct. 11, right after Thanksgiving.
However, the Whistleblower is not some easy entertainment to let you sit back and relax after too much turkey. This film will have you sit straight up in your seats and make you say: What on Earth, can this really be happening in present day society?
Screening is at 7 p.m. at the Gibraltar Room. Back doors open at 6:30 p.m. Admission is $9 regular, $8 for members, and $6 for seniors and elders.
This is a sneak preview — the film is not yet officially available.
The Whistleblower has been called the film the UN does not want you to see. And I can believe that. To have the UN, peace keepers, big corporations, and diplomats involved in human trafficking, better described as horribly forceful exploitation of women and very young girls, is hard to take and understand.
And The Whistleblower is based on a true story.
Kathy Bolkovac (Rachel Weisz) is a police officer from Nebraska who goes to Bosnia because she really has no other choice. Divorce, child care, her love for her work — all this is held against her. Kathy submits and hopes to really be able to do some good in Bosnia. But the reality she encounters there is beyond anything she ever could have imagined. She runs into friends and foes. Some of the scenes are hard to watch, because you do not want to believe that men can actually enjoy this, and that they feel to have the right to such enjoyment.
And that they have the right to kill her for finding out. Vanessa Redgrave also has a strong role in this film.
I have met the Ukrainian-Canadian director, Larysa Kondracki, in person, and my first question to her after seeing the film was: Are you not scared to show this in public? She just gave me this wonderful soft laugh and said no. So far no problems. I hope this will continue, and that people might even take a stand after seeing this film. After all, the big corporation portrayed in The Whistleblower is still securing billions of dollars in security contracts for the US State Department in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Did I say security contracts?
This film makes us realize that we have to stand up for what is right. There is a lot of work to do — and it will take time — but as we will learn from The Whistleblower, the victims and survivors deserve our help and the help of institutions that were designed to protect them.
The Whistleblower is a powerful and unflinching film. It will speak to you directly.
Weisz is perfect in her role, and you believe her motivations. It does not surprise you that her Kathy Bolkovac did not get another job in North America, that she lives in Holland now — but then you ask yourself, why? Is she the one who did wrong?
This film will keep you on the edge of your seat. It will keep you talking about it for a long time, especially after you might have heard Larysa Kondracki on CBC, as well as the actual Kathy Bolkovac.
Shirley-Pat Gale will be at the screening, ready to answer questions about whistleblowing. She is speaking from her own experience here in Williams Lake.
I hope to see you Tuesday, Oct. 11. Memberships will be available at the door and are still only $10 for the whole year, right through April. Again, the proceeds of the film will go to the LDA, the Williams Lake Chapter of the Association for Students with Learning Disabilities.
