Robert Connolly’s film ‘Balibo’ is a powerful anti-war movie. I came out of the cinema just feeling gutted, particularly knowing that this nightmare actually took place.
The nightmare took place in East Timor in 1975 when Indonesia invaded the small country shortly after he had declared its independence from Portuguese sovereignty. The invasion was devastating with the countryside becoming a killing fields. For Australia the invasion had a special significance and grief. Six of Australia’s leading journalists were killed by the Indonesian military, making a mockery of the convention that journalists have some sort of protection in a war zone.
Robert Connolly directed ‘Balibo’ in a confronting, no holes barred approach. Connolly, (from a script co-written by David Williamson and himself that was adapted from the book ‘Cover Up’ by Jill Jolliffe), even takes shots at the Australian Government of the time, under the helm of Gough Whitlam, that took no action upon the Indonesian’s invasion.
‘Balibo’ charts an expansive journey all the way from Roger East having a comfortable life and career in Darwin, that is until Jose Ramos-Horta visits him and begs him to go to East Timor to tell his people’s story, to years later, in post war East Timor, as Juliana,a young woman who East had befriended when she was a young girl, tells East’s story and the horror of the Indonesian invasion to the Timor-Leste Commission for Truth and Reconciliation.
In many ways the film’s most haunting scene is when the young reporters paint in bright red the word Australia on the front of their shed they are staying in, thinking that this would mean they would have a safe haven. How wrong they were! The scenes depicting their subsequent demise were shot in a confronting, striking way by brilliant cinematographer, Tristan Milani. Composer Lisa Gerrard’s score was deeply affecting.
Connolly wins strong performances from his cast. Anthony LaPaglia gives a great performance as East, the earnest, heroic main character trapped in the nightmare. There were also strong performances from Oscar Isaac as the dedicated, intense Jose Ramos Horta, Damon Gameau as top television reporter, Greg Shackleton, and the role of Juliana, played as a young girl by Anamaria Barreto and as a young woman by Bea Viegas.
(c) David Kary