Louise Arbour’s story is nothing less than a crusade waged by one woman to uphold an international standard of human dignity. What is her most effective weapon? The law. Arbour’s successful indictment of war criminals at The Hague is of tremendous historical significance. While
Hunt for Justice is fictionalized, due to the dictates of dramatic exposition, it’s infused with Arbour’s real-life passion, warmth and charm. She is driven by the desire to save future generations from suffering the indignities that scarred the Balkan and Kosovo regions.
“News footage in the 1990s, showing massive deportation, murder, rape camps and emaciated men in concentration camps. was horrifying. It was never again – all over again ” , recalls executive producer FRANCINE ALLAIRE of Galafilm Inc. “We were outraged, but the massacres continued. We asked ourselves how we could restore justice, dignity and peace. I put all of my faith in Louise Arbour. I share her belief in international law and giving a voice to the thousands of innocent victims of ethnic and religious cleansing. When she nailed Milosevic, she became a hero and I had to share her story with as many people as possible.”
Allaire’s conviction, shared by her co-executive producers ANNE MARIE LA TRAVERSE and Primetime Emmy Award-winner ARNIE GELBART of Galafilm, RANDY HOLLESCHAU of Crazy Dreams Entertainment and CHRISTINE RUPPERT of Tatfilms in Germany, helped propel the project forward.
Allaire met Louise Arbour in Ottawa at the Supreme Court of Canada for the first time in 2001. “She’s vibrant, warm, energetic, engaging, witty and very lively. She adores people, enjoys a good meal, a good book and an eclectic variety of music” , says Gemini-Award-winner Allaire,. “But, she’s also rigorous and disciplined, which most likely stems from her days at school studying classics with the nuns at Regina Assumpta in Montreal. We clicked right away. Although she could not participate in the film because of her position as a Supreme Court Judge, I promised her we would respect the emotional truth and the integrity of the events. She agreed that it is important to tell people about the dirty war and strategy of ethnic cleansing. And she understands that we can’t squeeze three years of her life—especially these three years—into one movie without collapsing characters and simplifying events.”
To capture as much authenticity as possible, the producers collected a vast array of research material including 15 hours of extra footage and outs of Montreal-based filmmaker Ole Gjerstad’s documentaries on Arbour showing her behind the scenes with her family, friends and staff and in action while investigating in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda.
“It was tremendously helpful to get past Louise’s legal and academic persona,” recalls co-producer ANNE MARIE LA TRAVERSE (The Eleventh Hour, Lucky Girl), who studied law at Osgoode Hall, where Arbour was a professor. “She’s actually very irreverent and very funny. She’s a remarkable woman that very few Canadian know about. She’s a woman who changed the world. Like Louise, Francine [Allaire] and I are also two French-Canadian women, so we’re even more proud to tell her story.”
Co-producer RANDY HOLLESCHAU (Changing Hearts) was equally impressed by Arbour’s accomplishments: “She’s a true Canadian heroine, but the story is much bigger than one country,” says Holleschau. “This is about how one woman affected the entire world and how her individual concern for humanity played out globally.”
Acclaimed director CHARLES BINAMÉ (H2O, Heart of Stone, Eldorado) is a natural fit for this project. “We needed a director who has the ability to illustrate the epic quality of the story and who can equally render the emotional impact of events on the characters,” says Allaire. Charles is also a painter, so he has a refined sense of aesthetic. He’s French-Canadian as well, so I thought he’d have a special rapport with Louise.”
Binamé’s goal was to tell the story without it looking or sounding like a documentary. “The hardest thing for the director to achieve with this kind of story is to make it palatable and appealing,” states Binamé. “We’ve all heard of Milosevic and we’ve heard of the Tribunal, but we don’t know very much. My job was to give it visual dynamism, some pulse.”
This is Binamé’s first film project based on a true story. After Allaire first introduced Binamé to Arbour, he became friends with Arbour while filming a TV series in Ottawa last year. Then he saw Milosevic in The Hague. “I met my friend, then my foe. Since the Balkan situation is extremely complex, I really wanted to make sure that every word that’s put out, every accusation that’s made, every figure of death or massacre, has been substantiated. There are people who say there was no genocide, just as there are people who say there was no Holocaust. So I stuck to the generally accepted truths of the war.”
A key element of Hunt for Justice’s success is the casting of WENDY CREWSON (Sex Traffic, A Home at the End of the World, The Clearing) in the lead role. Known as a glamorous actor, Crewson was not an obvious choice.
“I thought Wendy’s looks might be an obstacle,” says Binamé. “Louise Arbour’s charm is her brilliance, her intelligence. So we toned Wendy down. No heels. More square-fitting suits. More feet-on-the-ground. Wendy wore minimal makeup, and changed her teeth and hair to more closely resemble Louise’s. Wendy has the fire and brilliance of Louise Arbour, so she did a lot of homework. Wendy didn’t just mimic, she made the character her own.”
While researching for her role, Crewson was impressed by Arbour’s no-nonsense personality: “Louise really is without ego. She’s compassionate, she’s maternal, she’s funny, she doesn’t need to be the center of everything. She’s a good Canadian girl—she gets the job done,” notes Crewson. “While I made some cosmetic changes to look more like Louise, I can’t make the biggest change, which is her intelligence. I should apologize right now to Louise for not capturing her magnificence!”
La Traverse notes that Crewson has a quick mind and warmth—two things you can’t fake. Crewson was glad to see Academy Award-winner WILLIAM HURT (The Village, Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Blue Butterfly) in the cast as the fictitious British General Mortimer, who becomes Arbour’s unexpected ally.
Hurt starred in Galafilm’s feature The Blue Butterfly produced by Allaire and Gelbart. When Allaire first spoke to Hurt about Hunt for Justice in 2002, he became intrigued with the project. “He said, ‘if you need me, I’ll be there. I want to make a contribution,’” recalls Allaire. “He brings gravitas, depth, and authority to the role.”
In the pivotal scenes with the generals, Hurt’s composite character, General Mortimer, at first resists Louise’s pleas for change. He then changes history by giving Louise boxes of British intelligence on the Balkan Wars.
Crewson also has a link with Hurt: “I worked with William many years ago in a movie called The Doctor, where I diagnosed him with cancer,” recalls Crewson. “He’s a fantastic actor and he always elevates what he’s in. The American general in the script is played by my husband, MIKE MURPHY, oddly enough, which was initially intimidating for me—acting beside these towering generals—but ultimately fun.”
Playing a military man was a change for actor JOHN CORBETT (My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Sex and the City, Raising Helen), who got the chance to flex different acting muscles in Hunt for Justice. “It was a pleasant surprise, when I read the script, to see that there was no love interest between my character, Captain John Tanner, and Louise,” says Corbett. “I’m usually asked to play the nice-guy boyfriend and most movies simply don’t get made if there isn’t a romantic angle.”
When Corbett originally got the script, he was wary of the content, but his partner convinced him of the importance of telling Louise’s story. His character is one of the Good Guys, too, collectively representing the SAS team that caught Kovacevic in Prijedor in 1997.
“My character has considerable rank, but he’s not a general,” observed Corbett. “He’s taking orders, but trying to be semi-subversive and help Louise. He takes Louise under his wing and tries to give her a sense of security.”
Another character on Louise’s team is her translator, Pasko, played by STIPE ERCEG. Pasko’s character is fictitious, but represents the grieving victims of the war.
“Stipe is the real deal!” observes co-producer La Traverse. “He lives in Berlin, but he’s actually Croatian. He brings authenticity to the role with his accent, his angular features and Slavic eyes…He’s a popular actor in Germany, making independent features, but he’s resisting commercial success—kind of like a Johnny Depp figure. He’s a thinker and wants to believe in his roles.”
For Erceg, this is his first English-language film. “I left Croatia for Germany when I was five years old, and I obviously followed the war very closely, yet I didn’t know about Louise Arbour,” recalls Erceg (The Educators). “I’m used to playing former-Yugoslavian guys, more crazy guys—it’s my third or fourth time. I’ve been Bosnian, Albanian and Yugoslavian. This time I’m a Bosnian Muslim. I think my character, Pasko, is trying to save himself by taking on the job of translating for Louise. He’s her shadow.”
Pasko also works with Keller, played by HEINO FERCH (The Fall, Run Lola Run, Napoléon), a big movie star in Germany. Director Charles Binamé met Ferch two years ago when they were on the jury of a film festival in Montreal. They remained friends, and Binamé was delighted to have him play Keller, the initially skeptical lawyer on Louise’s legal team at The Hague.
The role of Keller isn’t based on a real lawyer, but is the embodiment of the bureaucratic hesitance to Arbour’s appointment and later resistance to her methods—however well intended. “My character makes a very interesting shift in this story,” notes Ferch. “At first, he’s a very brilliant lawyer at The Hague, but he didn’t want to challenge the generals. Louise’s energy changed all that. And he respected her tremendously by the midway point.”
Ferch followed the Balkan conflict avidly from his home in Germany: “It’s just a one-hour flight from Germany to the former Yugoslavia—maybe five hours by car. So, we were very concerned and worried that it would spill into Austria and the south of Germany, too,” says Ferch.
“When you walk around Berlin with Heino, the paparazzi follow you!” says La Traverse. “He’s in a lot of action films and he’s adored.”
Rounding out Louise’s legal team at The Hague is her (fictitious) assistant Tina, a sparky New Yorker played by CLAUDIA FERRI (Mambo Italiano, Ciao Bella) and the (fictitious) forensic expert Camille Gilbert, played by LESLIE HOPE (24, H2O: The Last Prime Minister).
“Charles [Binamé] knows Leslie from Paul Gross’s H2O, CTV loves her, she’s in 24 and she’s a good friend of Wendy’s. It’s a great fit,” says Francine Allaire. “Just like Wendy, she’s playing a less glamorous role here, but also one full of compassion and public service.”
