Vanessa Redgrave, Monica Bellucci and David Strathairn have been cast alongside lead Rachel Weisz in Larysa Kondracki’s The Whistleblower, a Canada-Germany co-production.

The project unites Canada’s First Generation Films, Berlin-based Barry Films and New York-based companies Primary Productions and Plum Pictures. Others cast in the picture include Danish sensation Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Anna Anissimova.

Written by Kondracki and Eilis Kirwan, the film tells the true-life story of a US police officer (Weisz) who volunteered in the humanitarian crisis of post-war Bosnia only to uncover a sex trafficking ring and the ensuing complicity of high-ranking UN officials in its cover-up.

The production companies have referenced Silkwood and The Insider as touchstones. The film goes to camera on October 26 in Bucharest, Rumania.

The project originally came together through producer Christina Piovesan, who went to Montreal’s McGill University with fellow Canadian Kondracki. In 2005, the duo optioned the rights to the story of a Nebraskan police detective who had volunteered to investigate sexual assaults in the wake of the civil war in the former Yugoslavia.

Piovesan will produce alongside Primary’s Amy Kaufman and Plum Pictures’ Celine Rattray. Piovesan produced the FIPRESCI Prize-winning Fortnight title Amreeka.

E1 Entertainment is distributing the film in Canada. Voltage Pictures is handling international sales.

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