Handlung

A drama based on the experiences of Kathryn Bolkovac, a Nebraska cop who served as a peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia and outed the U.N. for covering up a sex trafficking scandal.

Inspired by true events, Kathy (Rachel Weisz) is an American police officer who takes a job working as a peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia. Her expectations of helping to rebuild a devastated country are dashed when she uncovers a dangerous reality of corruption, cover-up and intrigue amid a world of private contractors and multinational diplomatic doubletalk.—Production

In 1999, in Nebraska, the police officer Kathryn Bolkovac sees the chance to raise money to be close to her teenage daughter, who lives with her father in another state, with the temporary assignment serving as U.N. peacemaker in Bosnia. The idealistic Kathryn believes that she can make the difference in a country devastated by the war, and she works hard and is promoted to director of her department. But soon she discloses a corruption and human trafficking ring with the direct participation of contractors and diplomats that have diplomatic immunity and she does not know who is reliable.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Kathryn Bolkovac (Weisz), a Nebraskan police officer, accepts a well-paying UN peacekeeping job in United Nations-regulated Bosnia. Working for a private contractor, the International Police Task Force is responsible for training local law enforcement bodies to restore order to the wartorn country. As she begins to get the lay of the land in her new environment, Kathryn starts to see signs of a shocking underground human sex trafficking industry, whose patrons are not only from within the corporation but from within the United Nations itself.

Raya is a young Ukrainian girl who is lured into working at a hotel in Budapest by her friend Luba. Raya initially refuses citing the reaction of her mother, but later joins Luba when she mistakes her mother's stern reaction to be indifference.

Kathryn Bolkovac (Rachel Weisz) is a police officer from Lincoln, Nebraska who accepts an offer to work with the United Nations International Police in post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina at a UK company called Democra Security (a pseudonym for DynCorp International). The job pays $100,000 tax free for 6 months work. Kathryn is divorced from her husband Kyle and has a daughter Erin. Kyle had custody and had remarried. When Kyle moved cities, Erin moved with him and Kathryn had no reason to stay in Lincoln.

In Bosnia, Kathryn hooks up with Jan Van Der Velde (Nikolaj Lie Kaas), a peacekeeper from Holland. Upon fighting for a trial for a Muslim woman suffering from domestic abuse and succeeding, Kathryn is made head of the department of gender affairs. Kathryn was able to stand up to extreme gender prejudice and racial hatred against the Muslims, from local Bosnians and Serbians to get justice for the woman. Kathryn trains a local police officer Viko (Alexandru Potocean) to investigate the case and present the evidence in court.

Kathryn starts making advances in her department by encouraging investigations to be conducted by Bosnian officers & by upping the convictions rate for crimes in her area. Her work comes to the notice of Head of UN Department for Human Affairs, Madeleine (Vanessa Redgrave), who encourages Kathryn to keep up the good work.

Meanwhile, Raya (Roxana Condurache), a young Ukrainian woman, and her friend Luba (Paula Schramm) are sold to a sex trafficking ring in Bosnia by Raya's aunt's husband. Raya escapes along with Irka (Rayisa Kondracki), another girl who was forced into prostitution. Both are sent to a women's shelter specifically set up for the victims of sexual slavery. While investigating their case, Kathryn is able to uncover a wide-scale sexual slavery and human trafficking ring that various international personnel, including those of the United States, have participated in.

She finds that the owners of the brothels have paid off the UN monitors from Democra in addition to the local police forces. She tries to enlist the help of her UN comrade Fred Murray (David Hewlett), who is also from the US, but he also tries to pass off the girls as waitresses at a local bar & not tortured sex slaves. Kathryn figures that Fred has also been paid off. She takes Raya & Irka to Laura Levi (Monica Bellucci) who runs the medical center for Bosnians, but she refuses help as the girls are Ukranian & she is not allowed to touch them without clearance.

Kathryn investigates the bar where Raya & Irka were found & uncovers photos of UN personnel from Democra violating the girls. Her efforts raise the flags internally with the senior management at Democra.

She persuades Raya and Irka to testify against their traffickers in court by promising that they will be safe, but an indifferent Laura drops Irka at the border between Bosnia and Serbia when she is unable to produce a passport. When Kathryn confronts her, she simply says that she couldn't keep Irka as she had no passport & no embassy would recognize her. Kathryn is angry. A corrupt peacekeeper tips off the traffickers, and Raya is recaptured and tortured. To deter other girls from running away and talking to the authorities, the traffickers make an example out of Raya by brutally sexually assaulting her with a metal pipe in front of them.

Though Kathryn manages to rescue a terrified Irka in the woods, the latter is too afraid to go forward with the trial.

Kathryn investigates further with the help of girls at the women's shelter, some of whom agree to testify & help Kathryn. She figures out that the UN team with Democra is not only aiding slavery in Bosnia but is complicit in trafficking girls from Ukraine & other Baltic countries into Bosnia for slavery.

When she brings the scandal to the attention of the UN, Kathryn discovers that they have covered it up in order to protect lucrative defense and security contracts. She nonetheless finds allies in her investigation in Madeleine Rees, head of the Human Rights Commission, and in Internal Affairs specialist Peter Ward (David Strathairn). As her investigation continues, Kathryn is met with threats on her answering machine and dead ends when highers-up override and close all the Internal Affairs cases. But Peter is shut down by his own superiors & steam rolled into not pursuing Kathryn's case. Peter meets Kathryn & advises her to go public with her case as that was the only way left to bring attention to the situation.

Through her trusted sources Kathryn manages to locate Raya, but her raid to the bar is tipped off to her corrupt colleagues who show up at the bar at the same time. All the girls, including Raya refuse to cooperate with Kathryn for fear of further persecution from the traffickers. Kathryn pleads with Raya not to be afraid & to come with her, but Raya refuses.

When Raya is later found dead, Kathryn sends an email entitled "Do not read this if you have a weak stomach or a guilty conscience" to 50 senior mission personnel detailing her findings.

One night, Kathryn enters DynCorp to gather evidence of the sex trafficking but is cornered by Ward and another employee. She is forced to hand the evidence to Ward, but it turns out to be a distraction planned by both him and Kathryn. They succeed in escaping before Kathryn is deported from the country where she brings her evidence to BBC News in the United Kingdom.

Following Kathryn's departure, a number of peacekeepers were sent home, though none faced criminal charges because of immunity laws. It is also noted that the United States continues to do business with private contractors like Democra Security, including contracts worth billions of dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan.