Showing @ Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Sun 30 Sep only

Larysa Kondracki / Canada/Germany / 2010 / 112 min

With Bradley Manning and WikiLeaks’ media proliferation, it’s easy to forget those lesser known but equally as brave whistleblowers who also took action against huge establishments of power. Police officer Kathryn Bolkovac (Rachel Weisz) accepts a job with a private security contractor assisting the UN’s peace-keeping in post-war Bosnia (1995). During her tour she discovers that some of her colleagues have become involved in a hugely profitable people trafficking operation.

Much like her harrowing topic, Larysa Kondracki doesn’t decorate her narrative too much with subplot. There are glimmers of back-story but the film remains focused on the abused girls. This reflects the rawness of the subject and gives some semblance of how trapped Bolkovac must have felt surrounded by corruption and deceit. The most shocking aspect however, is the regularity of stories like this in modern society. Made fifteen years after the true events she adapts, Kondracki is using the past to warn about the future. A comment about how easy it is to become a contractor, Kondracki emphasises how the structures in place enable illegal activities. Although we’re now in a different millennium, the systems and institutions that failed in Bosnia are still hailed today as a fitting and viable solution. This film then acts as a warning not to blindly trust the organisations that purportedly do good.