Campus Engagement #2

Last night I hosted a screening of "The Whistleblower" in my backyard. Six people attended and it was definitely helpful having others around to discuss what was happening during the film.

While the film may have played a bit into the stereotype of who a trafficking victim is, it shed light on what the perpetuators of this type of violence look like. Kathy, working with the U.N. International Police, is sent to Bosnia post-war. In working with a young woman named Raya, she uncovers a deep-rooted human trafficking and sex slavery scandal: her fellow officers are not only paying for prostitutes, they are transporting them, and being paid to keep quiet. The woman working in the shelter tells Kathy, “Half of our men died at war. Who do you think these women are working for?

Raya is reluctant to cooperate with Kathy at first. And despite her efforts to keep Raya safe, she is eventually abducted and brought back “to work.” To set an example of what will happen if you “deal with the devil,” the other girls are forced to watch Raya as she is anally raped with a lead pipe. Afterwards, she is told that she will go to work in 2 hours. When Kathy reappears to help her, Raya refuses. This definitely supported what we read in Girls Like Us, when it is seemingly safer to stay with your abuser than go through the gruel of leaving them.

You are left with a moral knot in your stomach at the close of the film, especially after the last prompt, which states that the U.S. is still doing business with private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite the “based on actual events” prompt at the start of the film, if I hadn’t had prior knowledge of the issue it would have been easy to push away the inconceivable corruption and wickedness presented in the movie as the imaginative work of Hollywood. For that reason, as enlightening as it was, I think it would have been more impactful as a documentary. Hopefully, it persuades most viewers to research the issue.

I plan on reading Kathryn Bolkovac’s book by the same name.