The movie has won two awards at the Berlin International Festival, one at the Munich and the London Film Festivals and one at the Chicago International Film Festival; Amnesty International award at the Berlin International Festival was another it won at that festival, for its probing subject depiction. A glance at the brief storyline gives you an idea of the context of the story. The cast were complete unknowns to me but clearly that is because I have a poor knowledge of rising European actors (a work in progress); the actors delivered most convincing performances.
This movie brings you inside the International Criminal Tribunal where you will discover the enormous challenges this organization has to overcome to fulfill its mandate, the utter frustrating obstacles the prosecutors, administrator, researchers, minders and others have to contend with on a regular basis and realize that the more passionate and dedicated prosecutors are, the more likely they are to find justice is an elusive ideal and a practically unrealistic hope they are best not to invest to much in. You will feel the same sad resignation to reality as that which the movie "The Whistleblower" mad me feel (see my review of same).
The main character in this movie, Hannah Maynard, played by Kerry Fox, is undermined at each of her attempts to make progress in the case of genocidal murderer, rapist and most despicable military commander she has been assigned to prosecute. A desperate victim of that commander's atrocities resorts to false testimony in a futile attempt to help the case before the tribunal and as a result, makes it all but impossible for Maynard to proceed when the defense attorney debunks the perjurer. Riddled with shame and despair the false witness kills himself. Maynard strong-minded sense of purpose manages to find a related real but reluctant witness (a rape victim herself); engaging that new witness to help, but too late to satisfy the court's protocols has now to deal with a new situation. She has placed that new witness and her family in harm's way and that family is 'revictimized '.In the end Maynard is betrayed by her husband, by the system she tried to serve and risks her career and future prospects by breaking the courts ordonnances just to allow the victim a chance to voice what the tribunal's process had denied her: telling the whole truth. The criminal walks away, the victim/witness' spirit is broken and so is Maynard.
I enjoyed the experience but the spoiler I just blurted above will not likely make you want to see the movie; sorry. If you still plan on watching it, you are a true movie enthusiast and just a bit of a masochist I think.
This movie brings you inside the International Criminal Tribunal where you will discover the enormous challenges this organization has to overcome to fulfill its mandate, the utter frustrating obstacles the prosecutors, administrator, researchers, minders and others have to contend with on a regular basis and realize that the more passionate and dedicated prosecutors are, the more likely they are to find justice is an elusive ideal and a practically unrealistic hope they are best not to invest to much in. You will feel the same sad resignation to reality as that which the movie "The Whistleblower" mad me feel (see my review of same).
The main character in this movie, Hannah Maynard, played by Kerry Fox, is undermined at each of her attempts to make progress in the case of genocidal murderer, rapist and most despicable military commander she has been assigned to prosecute. A desperate victim of that commander's atrocities resorts to false testimony in a futile attempt to help the case before the tribunal and as a result, makes it all but impossible for Maynard to proceed when the defense attorney debunks the perjurer. Riddled with shame and despair the false witness kills himself. Maynard strong-minded sense of purpose manages to find a related real but reluctant witness (a rape victim herself); engaging that new witness to help, but too late to satisfy the court's protocols has now to deal with a new situation. She has placed that new witness and her family in harm's way and that family is 'revictimized '.In the end Maynard is betrayed by her husband, by the system she tried to serve and risks her career and future prospects by breaking the courts ordonnances just to allow the victim a chance to voice what the tribunal's process had denied her: telling the whole truth. The criminal walks away, the victim/witness' spirit is broken and so is Maynard.
I enjoyed the experience but the spoiler I just blurted above will not likely make you want to see the movie; sorry. If you still plan on watching it, you are a true movie enthusiast and just a bit of a masochist I think.