Balibo (2009)

War correspondent Roger East and the young Jose Ramos-Horta travel to East Timor to investigate the murders of the Balibo Five in 1975.

Director:

Robert Connolly

Writers:

Robert Connolly, Jill Jolliffe (book)

Stars:

Jane Hampson, Bea Viegas, Christine Martins

13 wins & 22 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jane Hampson	...	Secretary
Bea Viegas	...	Juliana
Christine Martins	...	Juliana's Child
Ana Rosa Mendoça	...	Juliana's Child
Mazarela Martins	...	Juliana's Child
Nazário Baptista	...	Juliana's Child
Michael Stone	...	Interviewer
Jose Belo	...	Interviewer's Assistant
Anamaria Barreto	...	Young Juliana
Nick Farnell	...	Ken White
Anthony LaPaglia	...	Roger East
Ella Watson-Russell	...	Secretary
Oscar Isaac	...	José Ramos-Horta
Simon Stone	...	Tony Maniaty
Thomas M. Wright	...	Brian Peters (as Thomas Wright)

Storyline

As Indonesia prepares to invade the tiny nation of East Timor, five Australian based journalists go missing. Four weeks later, veteran foreign correspondent Roger East is lured to East Timor by the young and charismatic José Ramos-Horta to tell the story of his country and investigate the fate of the missing men. As East's determination to uncover the truth grows, the threat of invasion intensifies and an unlikely friendship develops between the last foreign correspondent in East Timor and the man who will become President. BALIBO is a political thriller that tells the true story of crimes that have been covered up for over thirty years.

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Plot Keywords:

east timor | murder | journalist | invasion | indonesia | 

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Taglines:

East Timor, 1975: Five Journalists Are Missing. One Man Searches For The Truth. One Man Fights For Justice.

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | History | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

The movie's release in Jakarta International Film Festival in 2009 was canceled due to the sensitive nature of the topic for the Indonesian government.

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Goofs

Anthony La Paglia's tattoos, which are very visible at the bottom of his sleeves, are inconsistent with the era. Few people had tattoos then. Even fewer had such heavy tattoos.

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Quotes

Roger East: No... No... I'm Australian.

User Reviews

A real hell of '75

Here's a different kind of horror story, cause it's true. A beefed up La Paglia, plays real life journalist Roger East, encouraged by a young activist from Timor, to do a story of five Aussie journalists who have just disappeared. They were traveling to Balibo, where we see two stories in play, between La Paglia and Company, and the five journal's ride to death, where the last ten minutes of the movie, hits hard and will affect, especially people who were there, when the country fell under evil Indonesian rule for the next, twenty four years, from which the activist who fled from the country all that time, returned, where there were no hard feelings from other people. La Paglia is really good, but so is the rest of the cast, Gameau's performance I really liked, apart from him being such a likable actor. The period is captured really well, again, a warning of what a dangerous place East Timor was. There are some scenes that will disturb, one in particular brought back memories of the scene in Salvador, with all those stretched out bodies in that big round pit. The story is a young surviving woman, who was a little girl at the time, where the little actress gave a cute performance. A really very disciplined approach to story.

Details

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 August 2009 (Australia)

Also Known As:

Балибо

Filming Locations:

Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$922,612

Company Credits

Production Co:

Arenafilm, Balibo Film, Cinimod Film

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1