Michael Ledo Rachel Weisz stars as Kathryn Bolkovac, a Lincoln Nebraska police officer. This is not the savvy Rachel Weisz role we are used to seeing. The beginning of the film tries to dummy down her character. Needing money she accepts a job in Bosnia as an observer, quickly moving up to a position of authority. She uncovers a sex trade scandal which involves the local police as well as her fellow co-workers and several international agencies.Attempting to do the right thing is a challenge especially when the victims fear to cooperate.This is not an exploitation film as the topic might suggest. There are no horrific graphic scenes and the nudity is on Polaroid photos. The script did not build the suspense, drama and excitement as one might expect. The actors were not as convincing as they should have been. Worth a view, but not owning.Parental Guide: F-bomb, sex, nudity.

craig-hopton This is compelling viewing and it's heartrending.It's set in post-war Bosnia and it's a true story about a policewoman from America who is posted there and tries to do what she can to blow the whistle on sex trafficking and slavery.What makes it really heartrending is that she is stopped at every turn by people in authority, including her fellow Americans. She never quite succeeds in rescuing the girls she grows attached to, but she comes agonisingly close.Rachel Weisz plays the policewoman and puts in a good performance. But the real stars of the show were Roxana Condurache and Paula Schramm who played the Ukrainian girls trafficked for sex.Don't expect to have your heart warmed by this film but do expect to find it gripping and to be reminded of the suffering that war torn countries endure even after the war is over.

juneebuggy This was a bit of a tough go, as the movie itself isn't spectacular and the subject matter is uncompromising and at times not easy to watch. The story is important though and the cast is fantastic with Rachel Weisz giving her all to the role of Kathy Bolkovac, an American police officer who travels to Bosnia on a UN peacekeeping mission and uncovers evidence that her colleagues (and many higher ups) are running a human trafficking ring.You sure don't come away feeling very good about humanity after watching this. I did find the movie pretty jumpy as a whole with Kathy's story, being told in little snippets of events so that it jumps around a fair bit especially in the beginning Weisz is fantastic in her transformation from public servant to crusader, risking everything and getting shut down by the very people she (we) should be able to trust. We also follow two young girls Ukrainian girls through their hell.There are several big names attached to this in small, dare I say wasted roles; Benedict Cumberbatch appears in two short scenes, on screen just long enough for you to think; that guy looks familiar, realize who it is, admire his American accent and then he's never seen again. Vanessa Redgrave was also impressive here. 10/18/15

SnoopyStyle Kathy Bolkovac (Rachel Weisz) is a twice-married cop in Lincoln, Nebraska. Her ex-husband is moving to Georgia with her daughter. She can't get a transfer. Then she's given an opportunity to a 6 month job for $100k. It's an UN security job in post-war Bosnia. She finds the country in ruins, and the international force to police the peace to be a hodgepodge group. It's a wild lawless world where the rules are murky and they are told to monitor rather than investigate. She successful wins the first case of domestic violence in Bosnia and Madeleine Rees (Vanessa Redgrave) picks her to head the Gender Affairs Office in the IPTF. She dives into this world of private contractors, corrupted criminal world, sex trafficking, multinational diplomacy, and bureaucratic cover-up.Rachel Weisz does good work in this compelling story. The only problem is the long running time. At almost 2 hours, it is about 20 minutes too long. There are too many overly long scenes where the tension isn't up to snuff. Sometimes it feels like filmmaker Larysa Kondracki is more concerned with making a point rather than making a tense thriller. The other small problem is the inspired by true story moniker. I do wish that the movie is about the real story. If they won't do that, then it's better to just make a completely fictional story and drop the moniker.