News Feature: Balibo - The Politics of Murder

On a stark wall in Balibo, west of the East Timorese capital of Dili, a lone handprint is etched in blood. It’s a powerful motif employed by the makers of the impressively bold Australian feature Balibo and serves as a potent reminder of a 34 year old cover up, and the dawn of one of the darkest periods in a nation’s history.  By Jim Mitchell.

On October 16, 1975, five Australian journalists, forever labeled the Balibo Five – Greg Shackleton, Gary Cunningham and Tony Stewart of Channel 7, and Malcolm Rennie and Brian Peters of Channel 9 – were murdered in cold blood by Indonesian militia after filming that country’s invasion of East Timor. They were claimed to have been killed while caught in a cross fire.

Less than two months later, the veteran Australian foreign correspondent Roger East reported the truth, and the ensuing human rights abuses of the East Timorese people as the Indonesian army invaded Dili. Refusing to leave, East was subsequently executed, along with hundreds of East Timorese.

The Australian government of the day shared a strong relationship with its Indonesian counterpart and was seen to do nothing to obstruct the invasion. Neither Indonesia nor Australia has made any official acknowledgement of the findings of a coronial enquiry in 2007, which confirmed emphatically that the Balibo Five had been murdered.

BRINGING THE STORY TO LIGHT

It was about five years ago, that ex-pat actor Anthony LaPaglia brought Cover Up, an investigation into the deaths of the Balibo by Jill Jolliffe, to his The Bank director Robert Connelly (Three Dollars). As well as offering a sterling performance as Roger East, LaPaglia was also an executive producer on their resulting film.

 “To be perfectly honest, I had very little recollection of the story,” says Adelaide-born Anthony LaPaglia who now makes his home in Los Angeles after cementing his position as an in-demand film and TV actor in Hollywood.

“In ’75 I was in the last year of high school. I wasn’t a political person so I really didn’t have much of a working knowledge about the story at all. I read Cover Up and thought ‘This is an amazing story, and I know bugger all about it!’ East Timor is only an hour from Darwin; this was a story really worth telling’.”

Using Cover Up as one its central sources, the screenplay for Balibo quickly broadened. Though initially focusing more intently on the murder of The Balibo Five, Connelly and renowned Australian playwright and screenwriter David Williamson (The Club, Gallipoli) incorporated Roger East into the story, as well as Jose Ramos Horta, then a political player on the rise and now the President of East Timor.

“It’s not just about these five Australian men,” says Connelly in the courtyard of an inner Sydney hotel.

“It’s about the tragedy that befell East Timor, and the very important role that the murders of these men played in this nation’s history.

“The war crime of murdering these men is clear, but the strategic blunder of it is never discussed: in killing the journalists, the Indonesian military kept the story of East Timor alive in the Australian psyche for over 24 years. In turn, that contributed to East Timor becoming independent, because Australians continued to be involved. One of the Timorese people said to me in Balibo, ‘We felt betrayed by the Australian Government, but never betrayed by the Australian people’.”

The resulting political thriller is a masterful mix of fact and fiction. The story is framed by the testimony of young mother Juliana (impressive newcomer Bea Viegas) to the Timor-Leste Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) as she recalls her memories as a nine year old befriending Roger East (who was a guest in her parent’ hotel) and witnessing his execution.

In flashback, we follow two intertwining accounts , one tracks the events leading to the deaths of the Balibo Five, while the other follows the treacherous journey of Roger East and Jose Ramos Horta (Oscar Isaac, Body of Lies) from Dili to Balibo as they retrace the steps of the missing newsmen to discover their true fate.

The film’s unapologetically political nature suits Robert Connelly to a tee.

“I have always loved the way that fiction feature films can apply the blowtorch to history,” he says. “Then bolted onto that is my own political frustration and anger at this concealed story. It’s amazing that this story hasn’t been told properly.

SOBER MOMENTS

LaPaglia soberly reveals that filming the massacre scene on the very same Dili wharf where East was executed was unlike anything that he’d experienced before in his career. The atmosphere was so realistic says LaPaglia, that acting became redundant.

“The guns were going off, and the Timorese extras - there were hundreds of them - were just screaming and wailing,” the actor recalls. “It was so chilling, so many of these Timorese people had actually witnessed it. There was no acting going on. It was like delayed grief. Everybody had lost someone….it was extraordinary.”

The real Jose Ramos Horta had significant input into his portrayal in the film. Connelly visited him in East Timor several times while writing the screenplay’s later drafts and Horta witnessed the filming of one of Balibo’s most anguished and moving scenes, as Horta and East make the grim discovery of a massacre.

“Afterwards, we all hung out and had some photos taken. It was really quite special,” recalls Connolly. “He was so funny. He said ‘Well I guess if George Clooney isn’t available, Oscar will do’.”

On the eve of filming the chillingly re-enacted murder of The Balibo Five, the five actors playing them slept in the very same house that the journalists had, 34 years earlier on the night before their deaths. A candle light vigil was held in memory of the slain newsmen.  

“It transcended anything that you would perceive acting to be,” says Damon Gameau (Underbelly) who plays journalist Greg Shackleton.  “It was very emotional for all of us, a really emotional experience.”

Connelly says that the reality of filming in East Timor was vastly different from the severe travel warnings of the time, no doubt spurred along by the assassination attempt early last year on Jose Ramos Horta, just months before filming began.

With a modest Australian crew joined by a contingent of East Timorese working in various production roles, the team kept a low profile. Everyone, no matter what their star status embraced the simple life.

“It’s the poorest country in South East Asia,” says Connelly.  “You know how the film industry is renowned for the excessive ways it treats its celebrities? There was just none of that.”

For LaPaglia it was a liberating experience.

“The great thing was that, although I’m a bit of a tech head – I like my computer and I like my phones – I had to drop everything for the most basic form of living,” he says. “Even going to the bathroom was a whole new thing. When you’re out in the woods wiping your butt with leaves, you know you’re in a different place!”

PULLING NO PUNCHES

Connelly and LaPaglia make no apology for the political nature of Balibo. They had little patience for the Indonesian Government when it raised concerns early in the film’s development that its perspective would not be portrayed. 

“I felt a little frustrated by those comments because what we’re trying to do is show what actually happened,” says Connolly  “I’m not really interested in the Indonesian and the Australian governments’ point of view.

LaPaglia is even more terse.

“It suited a number of people for the story to fade away including the Indonesian Government, who were none too pleased that the movie was being made,” the actor says. “My response to that is ‘Go make your version. If you’re worried about being represented incorrectly, then by all means, go make your movie’.”

As Balibo finally arrives in cinemas, LaPaglia reflects on the profound impact that East Timor and the film has had on him.

“Not just from a film making point of view but from a personal point of view – I’ve never really said this about any project that I’ve done before – it was a kind of life altering experience for me,” he says, before recalling one of his favourite memories; playing soccer with East Timorese kids on the beach at dawn.

“At some point, I’d like to go back and contribute to that place in a more meaningful way.”   

Connelly is largely positive about the reaction that Balibo will receive.

“If we can’t apply the blowtorch to the events of 1975 and really scrutinise it, then we’re in an absurd predicament,” he says.

“Maybe this story is finally going to come to the fore and be dealt with.”

This is an edited extract of a feature first published in Filmink Magazine, September 2009.