THE WHISTLEBLOWER

EEN FILM VAN

LARYSA KONDRACKI

WILD BUNCH HAARLEMMERDIJK 159 - 1013 KH – AMSTERDAM WWW.WILDBUNCH.NL [email protected] WILDBUNCHblx THE WHISTLEBLOWER – LARYSA KONDRACKI

PROJECT SUMMARY

EEN PRODUCTIE VAN WHISTLEBLOWER (GEN ONE) CANADA INC. / BARRY FILMS TAAL ENGELS LENGTE 112 MINUTEN GENRE DRAMA LAND VAN HERKOMST USA FILMMAKER LARYSA KONDRACKI HOOFDROLLEN DAVID STRATHAIRN MONICA BELLUCCI NIKOLAJ LIE KAAS RELEASEDATUM 10 NOVEMBER 2011 GEBASEERD OP HET BOEK ‘KLOKKENLUIDER IN BOSNIË’ VAN KATHRYN BOLKOVAC FESTIVALS TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILMFESTIVAL – OFFICIËLE SELECTIE THRILLERFESTIVAL IN ZOETERMEER - OPENINGSFILM WEBSITE WWW.THEWHISTLEBLOWER-MOVIE.COM

KIJKWIJZER

SYNOPSIS Politieagente Kathryn Bolkovac neemt een baan bij de VN aan om mee te helpen aan de wederopbouw van het door oorlog verscheurde Bosnië. Maar haar missie krijgt een andere wending, wanneer Kathryn ontdekt dat er achter de schermen corrupte en duistere activiteiten plaatsvinden waar VN militairen en plaatselijke regeringsfunctionarissen bij betrokken zijn. Kathryn gaat op onderzoek uit en ontdekt een ondergrondse seksindustrie waarvan honderden vrouwen het slachtoffer zijn. Met gevaar voor eigen leven vecht ze om de waarheid aan het licht te brengen.

Gebaseerd op een waargebeurd verhaal.

MAIN CAST KATHRYN BOLKOVAC RACHEL WEISZ MADELEINE REES VANESSA REDGRAVE LAURA LEVIANI MONICA BELLUCCI PETER WARD DAVID STRATHAIRN JAN VAN DER VELDE NIKOLAJ LIE KAAS RAYA ROXANA CONDURACHE LUBA PAULA SCHRAMM VIKO ALEXANDRU POTOCEAN BLAKELY WILLIAM HOPE IRKA RAYISA KONDRACKI HALYNA JEANETTE HAIN NICK KAUFMAN BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH FRED MURRAY DAVID HEWLETT MILENA COCA BLOOS JIM HIGGINS LUKE TREADAWAY BILL HYNES LIAM CUNNINGHAM

THE WHISTLEBLOWER – LARYSA KONDRACKI

CREW DIRECTOR LARYSA KONDRACKI WRITER LARYSA KONDRACKI EILIS KIRWAN PRODUCER CHRISTINA PIOVESAN CELINE RATTRAY EXECUTIVE PRODUCER AMY KAUFMAN PETER SCHAFER NICOLAS CHARTIER CO-PRODUCER BENITO MUELLER WOLFGANG MUELLER ROBERT BERNACCHI ASSOCIATE PRODUCER JIMMY DE BRABANT DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY KIERAN MCGUIGAN PRODUCTION DESIGNER CAROLINE FOELLMER EDITOR JULIAN CLARKE COSTUME DESIGNER GERSHA PHILLIPS MAKEUP AND HAIR JAN SEWELL MUSIC MYCHAEL DANNA CASTING JENNY LEWIS SARA KAY STORY CONSULTANT KATHRYN BOLKOVAC

THE WHISTLEBLOWER – LARYSA KONDRACKI

PRODUCTION NOTES

The Whistleblower is a film that harkens back to the Golden Age of American independent cinema from the early 70’s, yet at the same time is an inherently modern interpretation of the political thriller. Like any broad reaching story, its genesis was relatively modest – in the early 2000s director Larysa Kondracki was based in New York conducting research on what would soon be her feature debut.

Born and raised in Toronto, she grew up with strong ties to the Ukrainian community there and used that as inspiration for the story that she wanted to tell. She explains, “As a Ukrainian, it was important to me to tell the story of trafficking, but what I had no idea was just how broad the crime was.”

Early on in the process, she came across the story of Kathryn Bolkovac, a Nebraska cop that ended up blowing the whistle on what was to be one of the greatest cover-ups in the history of the United Nations. “Once I read about Kathy I contacted her,” states Larysa, ”and asked Eilis Kirwan, my co- writer to come on board. We knew it was a very big story at the time.”

It was a very big story which had long-reaching ramifications for international social policy, law and human rights. Surprisingly enough, even though it received tremendous attention in the press and with the overall public in Europe, Bolkovac’s lawsuit was relatively unknown on the other side of the Atlantic. Similar to the modest beginnings of the film, the actual true-life story started simple enough – a single mother wanting to provide for her children. This single mother just happened to be a celebrated police officer from Nebraska, and intrigued by the opportunity, she jumped at the chance to travel to post-war Bosnia under contract by the UN to police international law. Bolkovac states, "I came in as a very naive Midwestern cop wanting to do the right thing, wanting to bring justice to a lawless world, and I found lawlessness within my own ranks... in the end it was a real awakening for me."

Kathy arrived in Bosnia in 1999. She quickly learned the rules that applied back home in the States were no longer, in a place that had faced years of internal strife. She had actually been aware of the situation much earlier and felt she had a calling to go: “A few years prior to me going to Bosnia, I had been sitting on my sofa in Lincoln, Nebraska watching the war in Bosnia on TV. Seeing the faces of what could have been my relatives because my family has Croatian roots. At that time I really felt like I was going to be there someday but really never knowing in what capacity it would be…it sounded like a worthy cause, something I could really learn from and wanted to do.”

Once hired to go, Kathy began to have misgivings about the situation she was about to enter and the people that she would be working with. When asked if she had a definitive moment where she realized something was wrong, Bolkovac explains, “There were clues before I left Fort Worth, Texas. A gentleman, I use the term very loosely, sitting with us by the pool having a casual beer, announces to the crowd that he knew where to find really nice 12 to 15-year-olds. That stuck in my mind, I registered it, I checked it but really tried to get rid of it. But when I got to Bosnia and started seeing the brothels and running into these women and investigating these crimes it all came back to me. It was so clear to what he was talking about...and then I had to find out for myself the truth.”

Bolkovac would make an impression during her time in Bosnia, as she quickly established herself as an individual that brought a lot of real-world experience to her job. Madeleine Rees, who is played by Vanessa Redgrave in the film, was head of Women’s Right and Gender Unit at the time. She says, “It was in 1999, 2000 that real issues of trafficking for purpose of sexual exploitation were being established. Kathy…was identified fairly early on as someone who had a great deal of experience in THE WHISTLEBLOWER – LARYSA KONDRACKI domestic violence…It seemed obvious that she would be a perfect candidate to come and work with us on the policing angle of combating trafficking.” It was because of who Kathy is as a person that she discovered a far greater issue at hand – the involvement of the “peacekeepers” in trafficking young women.

Rees goes on to explain, “Because she is an investigator by training but also by instinct she couldn’t let it go. She couldn’t just do what she was told to do…she went to the bars, she saw the guys in the bars. She was reporting that to her superior officers and to me. Gradually it was becoming more and more evident that there was far, far greater numbers of men involved from the international police task force and from international organizations that we had any idea of.”

It was this realization and her need to confront the truth that put Bolkovac in a precarious position. “For me it was really shocking,” Bolkovac explains, “because I felt that my motives were genuine and I was here to help. I wasn’t here to hunt down police bad guys…When I began investigating the internal corruption involvement of our own police forces and our own internationals in the sick world of trafficking, I didn’t expect the backlash that I got.” As she dug deeper and deeper, the situation became untenable and because she was a threat to the face of the rebuilding project in Bosnia, the powers that be found an excuse to fire her. Bolkovac, being the person she is, filed a wrongful dismissal case against her employers and finally cleared her name in 2001.

PETER WARD Their contract in Bosnia is worth millions. Globally, this year alone: over a billion in US government contracts. This is one of the top defense contractors in the world. Then you come along, with this scandal—

It was the following year that Larysa reached out to Bolkovac who was now living in the Netherlands and arranged a meeting between her, Kathy and co-screenwriter Eilis. There was almost an instantaneous mutual appreciation of what each woman brought to the table. Bolkovac remembers, “there was something about Larysa. She just sounded so hungry... so authentic. I thought, why not give [the story] to her... never in a million years did I think it would amount to this."

Eilis remembers her first impressions of Bolkovac: “she’s funny and she’s a mom and she has weird ringtones on her phone. She’s not some pofaced, self righteous lady. She’s just somebody who was in a situation who saw something was happening that she didn’t think was ok…She could have been my mom, or me, or anyone I know, in a way. And that made it such an interesting story once we knew who she was.”

More importantly, the filmmakers felt they had found someone whose story fully covered the story that they wanted to tell. Explains Larysa, “you realize that Kathy’s story was the strongest. What she went through encompassed every aspect of it – you had the anti-trafficking industry, you had the UN, you had the girls’ story and then you had Kathy’s personal story…We realized through development that Kathy experienced them all.” Once the initial script was completed, it created a tremendous amount of buzz in the industry, first being set up at Focus Features and then at HBO Films. It was when the filmmakers decided to forgo the system and approach the project from an independent perspective, the pieces quickly fell into place. The greatest piece of them all was who was going to play the multi-faceted Kathy, a lead that could tackle the hardcharging public persona but balance it with the tender mother on the private side.

THE WHISTLEBLOWER – LARYSA KONDRACKI

KATHY (V.O.) We are peacekeepers who came to protect the innocent but now prey upon them in the worst ways possible.

Enter Academy Award winner Rachel Weisz. She had actually read the script several years prior while she was pregnant with her first child and felt not in the right headspace to tackle such an emotionally resonant film. However, the power of the script stayed with her and a short while later she actually reached out to the filmmakers to see where the project was and very quickly was back right in the thick of things.

For Rachel, the script personifies the main theme that she is attracted to – “ordinary women who do extraordinary things." She goes further, "It's not really a moral question to her whether or not to act and to do something and blow the whistle... or to step in where she sees injustice. I don't think she thinks about it. I think it's just purely who she is, and she is one of those people who cannot be anything other than who she is. And that's pretty extraordinary."

Extraordinary is also a word to describe Rachel’s performance in the film. Once Rachel reached out to the filmmakers, Larysa knew that they had finally found their Kathy. Simply in reflecting upon the variety of characters that Rachel has played throughout the years, Larysa asserts that, “she hasn’t boxed herself into a corner” and, “there’s not one role that defines her… she’s a real actor.” It is obvious that this feeling is shared by Kathy herself who, looking back on a meeting between her and Rachel, says of Rachel, "we hit it off right away. She's very kind and she's just the kind of person I would like to play me. I see a lot of thoughtfulness in her, a lot of maturity... I just see her getting it."

With Rachel on board, the rest of the acclaimed cast came together. Academy Award winner Vanessa Redgrave plays Kathy’s mentor and confidant, Madeleine Rees. Academy Award nominee David Strathairn (who played opposite Weisz in Wong-Kar Wai’s My Blueberry Nights) is Peter Ward, a friend of Madeleine’s that helps Kathy navigate Internal Affairs. The Danish actor Nikolaj Lie Kaas (Angels & Demons) is Jan van der Velde, Kathy’s contemporary in Bosnia and the man she ultimately falls in love with. Rounding out the cast is the Italian actress Monica Bellucci (Irreversible, The Passion of the Christ) who plays the head of a NGO and represents the bureaucracy that Kathy is up against.

KATHY Young women confided in me about what they had experienced, putting themselves at great risk. I felt that if I could do nothing else, the least I could do was give them a voice and... bear witness for them.

Principle photography commenced in and around Bucharest, Romania in late October of 2009, and would continue through the mountains of Transylvania, establishing shots in Bosnia and wrapping up several days in Toronto. Filming in Eastern Europe was essential as Larysa explains, “Locations are a character. Especially in a story such as this, where it’s more about what you don’t see, so you need to create that world. A lot of it is Kathy putting these clues together…That sense of discovery, that process of Kathy putting together all these worlds and how they connect, it’s something you can only really get on location.”

THE WHISTLEBLOWER – LARYSA KONDRACKI

According to Larysa, what she really wanted to do was to, “create a film that you’re engaged with, and then afterwards say ‘how much of this is true?’”. What Larysa wants her audience to know is that, “…this is happening… it’s actually much worse and *it’s+ continuing to happen, and that really we need more people like Kathy.”

Eilis continues by adding, “when we decided to tell this story about trafficking and about the fact that this happens to young women, happened and still happens, it was really important for us to have a character in the film that the audience got to know on some level beyond ‘I am an abstract victim’.”

This they accomplished with the character of Raya, played superbly by the young Romanian actress Roxanna Condurache. Raya, to great effect, is the vehicle Larysa and Eilis use to connect the audience to the brutality of the crime of sex trafficking and to express the fear and psychological torture that the girls involved must endure.

“It’s very important the audience gets to know in a pretty hard-hitting way what these girls go through,” says Eilis. “Even though it is sometimes difficult material to sit and watch as an audience and to write, frankly…it can’t stay abstract in anyone’s mind anymore.” And Larysa hopes that not only will the audience come to really understand the nature of this crime and to see the girls as not just abstract, intangible victims, but that, “it sparks a huge debate. I think it needs one.”

THE WHISTLEBLOWER – LARYSA KONDRACKI

ABOUT KATHRYN BOLKOVAC

Kathryn Bolkovac is a former police investigator from Nebraska who served as an International Police Task Force human rights investigator in Bosnia. She cooperated with Human Rights Watch to expose the misconduct and human rights abuses committed against young girls, forced into prostitution and used as sex slaves by U.S. military contractors and other UN-related police and international organizations. She lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Her tell-all book The Whistleblower will be published by Palgrave Macmillan January 4, 2011.

THE WHISTLEBLOWER – LARYSA KONDRACKI

CAST

RACHEL WEISZ - KATHRYN BOLKOVAC Academy Award-winning actress Rachel Weisz, who is known for portraying women of incredible spirit and intelligence, continues to seek out challenging projects and roles both on screen and on stage. Weisz received overwhelming critical praise as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award, Golden Globe and an Academy Award for her performance in "The Constant Gardener," directed by Fernando Meirelles ("City of God") and based on the best-selling John le Carré novel.

Weisz recently wrapped production on Jim Sheridan's thriller "Dream House," in which she stars opposite Daniel Craig and Naomi Watts. Universal Pictures will distribute this film that centers on a successful publisher (Craig) who quits his Gotham job and relocates his wife (Weisz) and two daughters to a quaint New England town, only to discover that their perfect new home was the murder scene of a mother and her two children. The film will be released in February 2011.

Weisz also recently wrapped production on the indie political drama "The Whistleblower," directed by Larysa Kondracki. Based on a true story, the film chronicles the trials of a female cop from Nebraska (Weisz) who serves as a peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia and exposes a United Nations cover-up of a sex trafficking scandal. The film will premiere at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival.

In 2010, Weisz won the Laurence Olivier Award in the category of "Best Actress" for her performance as Blanche DuBois in the revival of Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire." The show ran on the London stage from July 28th through October 3rd, 2009. Weisz currently stars in Alejandro Amenabar's ancient Egyptian epic "Agora" opposite Max Minghella. She plays astrologer-philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria, who fights to save the collected wisdom of the ancient world. Her slave Davus (Minghella) is torn between his love for his mistress and the possibility of gaining his freedom by joining the rising tide of Christianity. The film premiered at the on May 17th, 2009. Weisz has received critical acclaim for her performance.

Weisz's previous film credits include Rian Johnson's international con man adventure "The Brothers Bloom" opposite Mark Ruffalo, Wong Kar Wei's "My Blueberry Nights," Peter Jackson's "The Lovely Bones," Adam Brooks' romantic comedy "Definitely Maybe" opposite Ryan Reynolds, Isla Fisher and Abigail Breslin, David Dobkin's "Fred Claus" opposite Vince Vaughn and Paul Giamatti, Darren Aronofsky's much-anticipated scifi/romantic fantasy adventure "The Fountain" opposite Hugh Jackman, Francis Lawrence's hit thriller "Constantine," Gary Fleder's "Runaway Jury," James Foley's "Confidence," and Chris and Paul Weitz' "About a Boy."

She is known to audiences worldwide for her lead role opposite Brendan Fraser in Stephen Sommers' blockbuster movies "The Mummy" and "The Mummy Returns." Weisz also starred in Jean-Jacques Annaud's "Enemy at the Gates," Michael Winterbottom's "I Want You," David Leland's "The Land Girls," Beeban Kidron's "Swept from the Sea," and Bernardo Bertolucci's "Stealing Beauty."

Weisz received critical acclaim for Focus Features "The Shape of Things" which also marked her first venture into producing. She had previously starred in writer/director Neil LaBute's staging of his original play of the same name, in both London and New York City.

Her performance in ' U.K. staging of "Noel Coward's Design for Living" garnered her the London Drama Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Newcomer. She also starred in the West End production of "Suddenly Last Summer," directed by Mathias.

THE WHISTLEBLOWER – LARYSA KONDRACKI

Weisz began her career as a student at Cambridge University where she formed the Talking Tongues Theatre Group, which performed numerous experimental pieces and won the prestigious Guardian Award at the Edinburgh Festival.

FILMS O.A. 2011 THE DEEP BLUE SEA 2011 DREAM HOUSE 2010 THE WHISTLEBLOWER 2009 AGORA 2009 THE LOVELY BONES 2008 THE BROTHER’S BLOOM 2007 MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS 2006 THE FOUNTAIN 2005 THE CONSTANT GARDENER 2002 ABOUT A BOY 2001 THE MUMMY RETURNS 1999 THE MUMMY

VANESSA REDGRAVE – MADELEINE REES Called “the greatest actress of our time” by the playwright Tennessee Williams, Vanessa Redgrave came from a legendary theatrical family. Her father, Sir Michael Redgrave, was one of Britain’s most popular and respected actors.

Her mother, Rachel Kempson, was a noted stage actress. Her sister, Lynn, is also a film and stage actress and her brother, Corin, was a successful stage director and actor. Redgrave made her professional debut in the play A Touch of the Sun (1957), in which she costarred with her father. Although she appeared in her first film, Behind the Mask, in 1958 she concentrated mostly on stage work throughout the 1950’s and early 1960’s. During the 1959 – 1960 season, she was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Her film career began in earnest in 1966 and within the space of two years she appeared in four films that established her reputation as an intelligent actress with a commanding presence. The first of her six Academy Award nominations was for Morgan! (1966.) She then appeared in Michelangelo Antonioni’s film, Blow-Up (1966.)

Her performance as Guinevere in Camelot (1967) further secured her status as one of the most popular and respected actresses of the era. In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s Redgrave showed her mastery of both classical and commercial fare. In 1968 she appeared as Nina in Sidney Lumet’s adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s The Sea Gull and as dancer Isadora Duncan in Isadora, for which she won a National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress, a second Prize for the Best Female Performance at the Cannes film festival, as well as a Golden Globe and Oscar nomination.

In 1971 Redgrave took on the role of Andromache in The Trojan Woman and received another Oscar nomination for her work as the title character in Mary, Queen of the Scots. In 1977 she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Julia (1977.) During the following two decades, Redgrave eschewed popular, commercial films, for smaller films. In 1980 her controversial performance as a Nazi concentration camp victim in the television adaptation of Arthur Miller’s Playing for Time won her an Emmy. Redgrave received a sixth Oscar nomination in 1992 for her work as Mrs. Wilcox in Howard’s End.

THE WHISTLEBLOWER – LARYSA KONDRACKI

Redgrave continued to garner accolades throughout the 1990’s and 2000’s. In 2000 her performance as a lesbian grieving the loss of her longtime partner in the HBO series If These Walls Could Talk 2 earned her Golden Globe Award and Emmy Awards for Best Supporting Actress, as well as the Excellence in Media Award by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. In 2005, Redgrave joined the cast of the FX series Nip/Tuck, in which she portrays Dr. Erica Noughton, the mother of Julia McNamara played by Joely Richardson her real life daughter.

In 2006, Redgrave starred opposite Peter O’Toole in the acclaimed film Venus and a year later in the acclaimed films Evening and Atonement, for which she garnered a Broadcast Film Critics Association award nomination for her performance despite it being only seven minutes. Redgrave can currently be seen in Julian Schnabel’s film Miral and Gary Winick’s film Letters to Juliet.

FILMS 2010 THE WHISTLEBLOWER 2007 ATONEMENT 2007 EVENING 2006 VENUS 2005-2009 NIP/TUCK (TV)

DAVID STRATHAIRN – PETER WARD David Strathairn won the Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival and earned nominations from the Academy, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, BAFTA and Independent Spirit Awards for his compelling portrait of legendary CBS news broadcaster Edward R. Murrow in George Clooney’s 2005 Oscar-nominated drama Good Night, and Good Luck.

His 2005 Independent Spirit nomination was the fourth in a stellar career that dates back to his 1980 motion picture debut in John Sayles’s first film, The Return of the Secaucus Seven. Strathairn subsequently collaborated with Sayles on seven titles, winning the IFP honor for his supporting performance in City of Hope, while collecting two additional nominations for Passion Fish and “Limbo. His early screen efforts included supporting roles in ’ Silkwood, Fred Schepisi’s Iceman, James Foley’s At Close Range and Robert M. Young’s Dominick and Eugene, as well as Sayles’s acclaimed dramas Matewan and Eight Men Out, and his 1984 satire, The Brother from Another Planet.

Turning the decade, Strathairn continued a busy screen career with costarring roles in several critically acclaimed films, including Tim Robbins’s directorial debut, Bob Roberts; Penny Marshall’s A League of Their Own; Losing Isaiah; Sydney Pollack’s The Firm; Sneakers; Taylor Hackford’s adaptation of the Stephen King novel Dolores Claiborne; and Jodie Foster’s Home for the Holidays; as well as two projects with Curtis Hansen: The River Wild and the Oscar-winning L.A. Confidential, in which Strathairn shared a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination with the all-star ensemble cast. His additional movie credits include Memphis Belle, A Map of the World, Simon Birch, Lost in Yonkers, Missing in America, Michael Hoffman’s adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Philip Kaufman’s Twisted and The Notorious Bettie Page, Temple Grandin for HBO and The Bourne Ultimatum directed by Paul Greengrass.

He has also maintained a high profile in the theatrical world, with roles at such venues as the Manhattan Theatre Club, the New York Shakespeare Festival, SoHo Rep, the Hartford Stage Company, Ensemble Studio Theatre and Seattle Repertory.

He will next been seen in Touchstone Pictures The Tempest directed by Julie Taymor starring opposite Helen Mirren and Russell Brand. THE WHISTLEBLOWER – LARYSA KONDRACKI

FILMS 2010 HOWL 2009 THE UNINVITED 2009 COLD SOULS 2007 THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM 2007 MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS 2006 WE ARE MARSHALL 2005 GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK 1997 LA CONFIDENTIAL

MONICA BELLUCCI – LAURA LEVIANI Monica Bellucci has achieved popular and critical acclaim throughout the world for her work in such renowned films as ’s Oscar nominated “Malena,” “Irreversible” and “The Passion of the Christ,” among many other international releases during her illustrious career.

Ms. Bellucci grew up in the Umbrian town of Citta di Castello, idolizing such global cinema icons as Sophia Loren, Anna Magnani, Gina Lollabrigida and Claudia Cardinale. Her own ascent to stardom began in Milan, where she was studying law at the University of Perugia when a friend urged her to try modeling.

Spotted by a director in a magazine layout, she was lured from her university studies and has worked as an actress ever since. She also captured the attention of director Francis Ford Coppola, who cast her in her first American role in his 1992 adaptation of “Bram Stoker’s Dracula.”

Ms. Bellucci garnered further acclaim in her first French-language film, the 1996 thriller “L’Appartement,” for which she won a Cesar (the French equivalent of the Academy Award). The film also marked the first of many collaborations with her future husband, French actor Vincent Cassel. The two have since starred together in such films as Gaspar Noe’s provocative thriller, “Irreversible,” which was an official competition selection at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and made its American debut at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival and “Spybound.”

2003 yielded increased visibility for Ms. Bellucci in the United States and around the world. In addition to the American release of “Irreversible,” she costarred with Bruce Willis in “Tears of the Sun” and appeared opposite Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne in the Wachowski Brother’s much-anticipated dual sequels, “The Matrix: Reloaded” and “The Matrix: Revolutions.” In 2004, she appeared in one of the year’s most talked-about films, portraying Mary Magdalene in Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ.” Ms. Bellucci’s film credits also include Christophe Gans’ French box-office sensation, “The Brotherhood of the Wolf” (“Le Pacte des Loups”), “Under Suspicion,” “Dobermann” and “Asterix: Mission Cleopatra,” as well as Spike Lee’s “She Hate Me,” “Remember Me, My Love” (directed by Gabriele Muccino, “The Pursuit of Happyness”) and ’s “The Brothers Grimm” (opposite Heath Ledger and Matt Damon).

After a brief hiatus from filmmaking, during which she gave birth to her first of two daughters, Bellucci starred in Bertrand Blier’s “How Much Do You Love Me?,” opposite Gerard Depardieu, New Line Cinema’s action thriller, “Shoot ‘em Up,” opposite and Paul Giamatti and “Le Deuxieme Souffle,” opposite Daniel Auteuil. In Guillaume Nicloux’s thriller “The Stone Council,” she played a mother ready to do anything to save her child and in Marco Tullio Giordana’s “Une Histoire Italienne (Wild Blood),” played Italian actress Luisa Ferida, who was killed by the partisans during World War II. In 2009, Bellucci worked with three acclaimed female directors: starring opposite Sophie Marceau in Marina de Van’s French drama “Don’t Look Back,” Maria Sole Tognazzi’s “The Man Who Loves” and Rebecca Miller’s “The of Pippa Lee.” THE WHISTLEBLOWER – LARYSA KONDRACKI

In 2010, she appeared with Nicolas Cage in Disney’s “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” Belucci will next star opposite Robert De Niro in “Manuale D’Amore 3, directed by Giovanni Veronesi.

FILMS 2011 MANUALE D’AMORE 3 2010 THE WHISTLEBLOWER 2010 THE SORCERER’S APPRENTINCE 2009 THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE 2005 THE BROTHER’S GRIMM 2004 THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST 2003 THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS 2003 THE MATRIX RELOADED 2003 TEARS OF THE SUN 2000 UNDER SUSPICION 1996 L’APPARTEMENT

THE WHISTLEBLOWER – LARYSA KONDRACKI

CREW

LARYSA KONDRACKI – WRITER / DIRECTOR While finishing the M.F.A. directing program at Columbia University, Larysa Kondracki first heard about the epidemic of sex-trafficking. A Canadianborn Ukrainian, the topic resonated deeply with her. After learning of Kathryn Bolkovac’s fate, Kondracki reached out to her about telling her story, spent time with her in Amsterdam, and ultimately spent two years in Europe with co-writer, Eilis Kirwan, researching the subject of trafficking, and speaking to NGO workers and high-level United Nations, EU and OSCE representatives. This work led to the script for THE WHISTLEBLOWER.

Kondracki is currently based in Los Angeles and has written feature projects for Focus Features, HBO Films, Participant Media, and Showtime Entertainment, amongst others. She has numerous projects in development, including The Count of St. Petersburg, which she plans to direct.

Larysa Kondracki was born in Toronto and studied English and theatre at McGill University. She received an M.F.A. in film direction from Columbia University and directed the short film Viko (08) which played at many film festivals to widespread acclaim.

THE WHISTLEBLOWER is her feature directorial debut.

EILIS KIRWAN - WRITER Eilis hails from Dublin, Ireland, where she began her career writing and producing plays at University College Dublin, and later with Doubletake Theatre Company, which she co-founded. She originally came to the U.S. as a Fulbright scholar, and is an alumnus of the Graduate Film Program at Columbia University.

In 2004, her short film, Nostradamus and Me, won numerous awards including the New Line Cinema Development Award and the Tribeca Award for Screenwriting, and was a finalist for the Student Academy Awards.

Eilis is now based in Los Angeles where she works as a screenwriter, having written projects for Focus Features, HBO Films, Participant Media, and Showtime Entertainment, amongst others. She has several projects in development, including Conflict Resolution, a comedic drama with First Generation Films, The Defektors, a one-hour TV drama, and Lovely Girls, an Ireland-based drama that she plans to make her feature directing debut.

AMY KAUFMAN – EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Whether securing distribution rights, establishing solid relationships with talented filmmakers, or shepherding for the studio the production of films like Y Tu Mama Tambien, 21 Grams, Lost in Translation, Assault on Precinct 13, Texas Chainsaw Massacre or The Constant Gardner, Amy Kaufman has been involved in the production of some very notable films. In recent years, she has segued into producing feature films through her own production banner, Primary Productions.

In September 2005, Ms. Kaufman left her position as an Executive VP at Focus Features to establish Primary Productions. Ms. Kaufman had been at Focus since its conception, when Universal acquired Good Machine International and turned it into its specialty film unit. At Good Machine, Ms. Kaufman handled international sales in Europe and Latin America, and at Focus she ran worldwide acquisitions before moving on to her role as Executive Vice President of Production.

In 2007 Ms. Kaufman produced the feature film Sin Nombre, a dramatic thriller set within the world of Mexican immigration for Focus Features. The film won the Best Directing and Best THE WHISTLEBLOWER – LARYSA KONDRACKI

Cinematography prizes at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, the Jury Prize at the Deauville Film Festival, the Skillset New Directors Award at the 2009 Edinburgh International Film Festival, Best First Feature and Best Actor (Edgar Flores) at the 21st Stockholm International Film Festival and was awarded Best Foreign Film of 2009 by The Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA) and the Austin Film Critics Association.

The Chicago Film Critics nominated the film for Best Foreign Language Film and the Most Promising Filmmaker. Additionally, Ms. Kaufman, director Cary Fukunaga and cinematographer Adriano Goldman were nominated by the 2009 Film Independent Spirit Awards for Best Feature, Best Director and Best Cinematography, respectively. The film was also nominated for the 2009 Best Foreign Language Film by the Broadcast Film Critics Association and by the NAACP.

In October of 2008, Ms. Kaufman produced the short film, Passage directed by Shekhar Kapur (ELIZABETH) for Swarovski Entertainment with Curious Pictures. A light show installation based on Passage was created by Shekhar Kapur and acclaimed architect David Adjaye and was on view at the Swarovski Kristallwelten in Wattens, Austria.

CHRISTINA PIOVESAN – PRODUCER Producer Christina Piovesan founded First Generation Films in 2007, and in a few short years, it has emerged as a production company to watch. FGF’s first feature was Amreeka, directed by Cherien Dabis. It premiered in U.S. Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival where it was acquired by National Geographic Films. It went on to screen at the Director’s Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival garnering the prestigious FIPRESCI award.

It opened New Directors New Films at the Lincoln Centre and went on to receive several award nominations including Best Picture nominations at the Gotham Awards, NAACP Image Awards and the Independent Spirit Awards. Amreeka was named one of the top 10 Independent Films of 2009 by the National Board of Review.

FGF’s next feature project THE WHISTLEBLOWER will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. A Canada-German coproduction starring Rachel Weisz, Vanessa Redgrave, David Strathairn and Monica Bellucci, the film tells the true story of UN corruption in post-war Bosnia. It is Larysa Kondracki’s directorial debut. FGF is partnered with See-Saw Films in the UK to produce Ian Rashid’s romantic comedy Something Blue. Also on the slate is Deb Chow’s gothic fantasy/thriller Billy Bones, and The Falcon, a family/adventure film set in the UAE and produced in association with Eagle Vision Media Group (Kuwait).

Christina received her Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Southern California where she produced several short films, winning a student Emmy Award. She was a development and production executive at Telefilm Canada working on such films as Defendor, Tracey Fragments, Away From Her and Blindness. She graduated with honours from McGill University and started her career at the William Morris Agency.

CELINE RATTRAY - PRODUCER Celine Rattray is the President of Mandalay Vision, the newly launched independent development, production and financing company that will continue to build upon the brand’s impressive history of independently financing films for the global marketplace. Mandalay Entertainment Group is a strategic investor in Mandalay Vision.

Focusing primarily on innovative storytelling with premier talent, Mandalay Vision’s latest release is The Kids are All Right, the 2010 Sundance Film Festival darling directed by and THE WHISTLEBLOWER – LARYSA KONDRACKI starring , Annette Bening and Mark Ruffalo, which was purchased by Focus Features following a two day bidding war that resulted in the biggest sale of the festival. The film was also recently honored with the Teddy Award for Best Feature Film at the 2010 Berlin International Film Festival, and was the highest per screen opening of the year.

Other upcoming releases for Mandalay Vision include Vanishing on 7th Street, an apocalyptic thriller directed by Brad Anderson, starring Hayden Christenson, Thandie Newton and John Leguizamo and financed by Herrick Entertainment. Mandalay Vision is currently in post production on Soul Surfer, based on the autobiography of teen surfer Bethany Hamilton, starring Dennis Quaid, Helen Hunt and Carrie Underwood. Also in post is Salvation Boulevard, a comedic thriller starring , Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris, Greg Kinnear and Marisa Tomei.

Shooting this fall are The Reasonable Bunch, a dysfunctional family comedy directed by Sam Levinson, starring Demi Moore, Kate Bosworth, Ellen Barkin and Ellen Burstyn; and the dark comedy Bernie directed by Richard Linklater, starring Jack Black and Shirley MacLaine.

Prior to joining Mandalay, Rattray was a founding principal in Plum Pictures, which she ran with her partners Galt Niederhoffer and Daniela Taplin. In just six short years, the prolific company made twenty independent films, including ten Sundance Film Festival selections, one Toronto Film Festival® selection and one Berlin International Film Festival selection. Plum’s festival accolades include wins of Sundance’s prestigious Audience Award and Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. Other nods for the company’s films include a Gotham Independent Film Award™, two Golden Globe® nominations and two Film Independent Spirit Awards® nominations.

While with Plum, Rattray served as executive producer on the 2009 Toronto Film Festival® entry New York, I Love You, a compilation of films by a roster of directors including Mira Nair, Josh Marston, Hughes Brothers, Brett Rattner, Yvan Attal, and Shekhar Kapur. The cast included an impressive line- up of notable actors such as , Chris Cooper, Robin Wright, , Orlando Bloom, Blake Lively, Bradley Cooper, Shia Labeouf and Rachel Bilson. Vivendi released the picture in October of 2009.

Also in 2009, Rattray produced both Tribeca Film Festival® selection Trucker, starring Michelle Monaghan, and After.Life, with , Christina Ricci and Justin Long. After.Life was the closing night film of the 2009 AFI Film Festival, and sold to Overture Films/Anchor Bay. In addition, Rattray produced the 2009 Sundance entry, The Winning Season, with Sam Rockwell and Emma Roberts. It was one of the biggest sales of the festival, selling to Lionsgate. Both After.Life and The Winning Season are set to be released in 2010.

With Rattray serving as producer, Plum’s films in 2008 included Sundance entries Diminished Capacity, starring Matthew Broderick, Alan Alda, Virginia Madsen; and Birds of America, starring Matthew Perry, Ben Foster, Ginnifer Goodwin and Hilary Swank. Diminished Capacity sold to IFC and Paramount and Birds of America sold to First Look.

In 2007, Rattray had three films at Sundance: Grace is Gone, directed by James C. Strouse and starring John Cusack; Dedication, directed by Justin Theroux and starring Billy Crudup and Mandy Moore; and Great World of Sound, directed by Craig Zobel. The Weinstein Company bought Grace is Gone and Dedication following heated bidding wars, and Grace is Gone went on to win the coveted Sundance Audience Award and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, as well as the International Critics’ Prize at the Deauville Film Festival and two Golden Globe® nominations. Great World of Sound, which sold to Magnolia, won a Gotham Independent Film Award™ for Breakthrough Director and was nominated for two Film Independent Spirit Awards®. THE WHISTLEBLOWER – LARYSA KONDRACKI

Rattray graduated with a first class degree in Mathematics and Philosophy from Oxford University. She trained as an associate in McKinsey’s Media and Entertainment practice from 1998 to 2000, with clients including the BBC, Channel 4, the and Time Warner.

SUNRISE FILMS Sunrise Films is one of the most innovative and prolific producer/financiers to emerge in the film industry in recent years. Since its inception in 2009, it has produced and/or financed three significant films: Father of Invention, The Whistleblower and Flutter. These films star notable talent including Academy Award Winner Kevin Spacey, Academy Award Winner Rachel Weisz, Academy Award Winner Vanessa Redgrave, Heather Graham, Camilla Belle, Johnny Knoxville, Billy Zane, Monica Bellucci and Academy Award Nominees David Strathairn and Virginia Madsen.

Sunrise Films is actively developing and financing a slate of films for 2010 and 2011, and packaging projects with international appeal. Its Distribution arm will handle the sales of 3 - 6 A-list films per year that will be produced and financed in-house in the caliber of The Whistleblower – an official selection of the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival.

BARRY FILMS - Benito Mueller & Wolfgang Mueller Co-Producers Barry Films is an internationally active production company based in Berlin, Los Angeles and Zurich, aiming to produce films and TV formats for the international market. Barry Films is led by Benito Mueller, Monika Weibel, and Wolfgang Mueller, a team with a wide experience in film development, financing, physical production and marketing/distribution. Filming is completed and postproduction is now under way on The Bad Intentions. When Pigs Have Wings is currently in preproduction. The Day of the Cat, with Bruno Ganz, had its’ World Premiere in January and is currently screening on the international film festival circuit. The film won the Bavarian Film Price and will premiere in Germany on October 25th.

Benito Mueller is Managing Director and producer on all Barry Films productions. He has a wide experience in film development and physical production gathered working with producer Mario Kassar, in the development departments of New Regency Productions, Lakeshore Entertainment and Spyglass Entertainment and in his function as a line producer on music videos and music related short format productions for labels such as Virgin Records or Jive Records.

Benito Mueller started his career working as a journalist in print, radio and TV. He later became a Commercial Analyst at Warner Brothers Switzerland and then moved Frenetic Films where he assisted Monika Weibel with acquisitions. Benito Mueller holds a M.A. in Mass Media, Cinema and Sociology from the University of Zurich, Switzerland and an M.F.A. from the Peter Stark Producing Program at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

Dr. Wolfgang Mueller is Managing Director and producer of Barry Films since 2007. From 2006 to 2010 Dr. Mueller was a member of the supervisory board of Senator Entertainment AG, one of the leading German film producers and distributors. In his role as an Executive VP at Atlantic Streamline Entertainment in Los Angeles, he oversaw day-today business operations of the production company.

Dr. Mueller has been an attorney at law with Sasse & Partner Attorneys, one of Germany’s most important entertainment law firms, since 1995. He founded the Berlin office of the law firm and was made a partner in 1999. Dr. Mueller is also active as an author. He has published several novels and short story collections under his alias Oscar Heym. Dr. Mueller holds a PhD in Law from the University of Cologne. He studied law at the Universities of Giessen, Madrid, Mexico D.F., Hamburg and Bonn. He holds a M.A. in Law from the University of Bonn. THE WHISTLEBLOWER – LARYSA KONDRACKI

INDOMITABLE ENTERTAINMENT Indomitable Entertainment has two main lines of business: executive producing feature films and catalyzing early stage ventures. Indomitable provides an innovative approach to the executive producing business, as it is positioned to participate as a principal in a film, structure financing, and source financing and/or distribution (domestic or foreign) for film slates or single pictures. Current projects also include Soul Surfer, Secret Lives of Dorks, Mortis Rex, and Broadway plays Ray and Breakfast at Tiffany's.

JULIAN CLARKE - EDITOR A BAFTA, ACE, Leo and Academy Award nominee, Julian has worked extensively in both the television and feature film arenas. His feature credits include the box office sensation DISTRICT 9, directed by Academy Award nominee Neill Blomkamp and Produced by Peter Jackson, The Whistleblower (premiering at TIFF this year) starring Rachel Weisz and Vanessa Redgrave and Unnatural and Accidental and Emile (starring Ian McKellan) for Raven West Films. Julian is currently cutting the feature prequel THE THING for Universal Studios and has just been added to Playback Magazine’s 10 Top Artists to Watch.

MYCHAEL DANNA - COMPOSER Mychael Danna has been scoring films since his 1987 feature debut, Atom Egoyan's Family Viewing, a score which earned him the first of his ten Canadian film award nominations. Danna is recognized as one of the pioneers of combining non-Western sound sources with orchestral and electronic elements in the world of film music. This reputation has led him to work with such acclaimed directors as Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter), Ang Lee (The Ice Storm),Terry Gilliam (Tideland), James Mangold (Girl Interrupted), Scott Hicks (Hearts in Atlantis), Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding) and Joel Schumacher (8mm).

Danna studied music composition at the University of Toronto, winning the Glenn Gould Composition Scholarship in 1985. He also served as composer-inresidence at the McLaughlin Planetarium in Toronto. His works for dance include music for Dead Souls (Carbone Quatorze Dance Company, directed by Gilles Maheu 1996), and a score for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's Gita Govinda (2001) based on the 1000-year-old classical Indian erotic poem, with choreographer Nina Menon.

Film projects include best picture nominees Capote and Little Miss Sunshine, Mira Nair's Vanity Fair, István Szabó's Being Julia, Deepa Mehta's Water, Universal’s Breach, his second collaboration with Billy Ray (Shattered Glass) and Sony’s CGI-animated film Surf’s Up.

After scoring the 2009 hit 500 Days of Summer for Fox Searchlight, Danna scored The Time Traveler’s Wife for New Line Cinema and his second film for Terry Gilliam, the Oscar-Nominated The Imaginaruim of Dr. Parnassus. Upcoming projects include Ang Lee’s highly anticipated Life of Pi for Fox and Bennett Miller’s Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt, for Sony.