EilisKirwan Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Rachel Weisz is a 'Whistleblower'
Filed under: Drama », Independent », Casting »
One of my first Cinematical posts all the way back in 2006 was about The Whistleblower, and all these months and years later, it's finally coming to fruition after a little studio jostling. Variety reports HBO Films has grabbed the indie drama, and they have nabbed none other than Rachel Weisz to star. While I was definitely hoping for her to add some more intelligent quirk to her resume (a la Brothers Bloom) this project will definitely give her some meaty material to work with.Written by Eilis Kirwan and Larysa Kondracki (and to be directed by the latter), Whistleblower focuses the story of Kathryn Bolkovac, a cop from Nebraska who traveled overseas to work in post-war Bosnia as a UN peacekeepe. She ran an office that investigated sex crimes, and while there, she witnessed atrocities, but shockingly -- they were performed by "peacekeepers, police, and U.N. workers." This, of course, prompted her to expose a big UN sex-trafficking cover-up.
In other words, more constant gardening and truth quests for Weisz. The film will shoot in Budapest, but no production date has been released ... hopefully it won't take another 2.5 years to come.
HBO to Reveal the Secret of The Whistle Blower
Filed under: Drama », Thrillers », Distribution », HBO Films »
HBO Films has scooped up a political thriller called The Whistle Blower. The film is based on the story of Kathryn Bolkovac, a
Bolkovac's honesty came at the cost of her job, although she was officially canned for falsifying time sheets. What the Nebraskan shared during a 2002 tribunal is shocking. Her claims ranged from accounts of men using prostitutes to women being beaten and raped if they refused to perform sex acts.
The Whistle Blower was penned by the Canadian and Irish filmmaking duo of Larysa Kondracki and Eilis Kirwan, who last made the short film Little Christmas. Can they handle serious material? Sexual slavery is a far cry from egg nog and mistletoe. Of course, we do live in a world where Kevin Costner could follow up Dances with Wolves with The Postman.
It has been over four years since Kathryn Bolkovac spoke out, yet these crimes are still happening, and movies are referencing them. TIFF aired Transe, the dry, chilling tale of a woman kidnapped and sold into prostitution. Yesterday, James Rocchi mentioned Sacha Baron Cohen's spin on the treatment of women in
* Thanks to reader Dorv for emailing us about an inadvertent typo that left out the word "Bosnia." The opening sentence makes much more sense with the correction. -ed
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