Last monthBaliboopened the Melbourne International Film Festival, which is also one the film’s sponsors. The Sydney preview saw the clinking of wine glasses come to a stop. The rowdy crowd was in a deep silence by the film’s end.
Balibo is the powerful new movie by director Robert Connolly (The Bank), which tells the fateful story of six journalists who were killed while filming in East Timor during the Indonesian invasion.
The film is told in flashbacks as we first hear the testimony of a woman who worked as a young girl at the hotel they all passed through. We then follow Roger East, played by Anthony LaPaglia.
East is charmed by a young charismatic José Ramos-Horta to go to East Timor to run their press agency and ends up following the trail of five missing journalists the Australian Government doesn’t seem to care about. He is four weeks behind the other journalists, whose story is told in grainy flashbacks as he follows their trail. It suits the mood when you know of their impending doom.
Although we know the fate of the Balibo Five and Roger East, the movie doesn’t lose its emotional impact. Connolly uses hand-held cameras, grainy footage and thundering sound to bring you into their world, which had the audience jumping. There are many confronting scenes, particularly their deaths. Connolly is daring us to look closely after looking away for so long and, from some accounts, he has spared us some of the horrific detail.
The actors are all outstanding. Lapaglia is excellent as Roger East and gives a nuanced performance which doesn’t rely on predictable Aussie larrikinism. Oscar Isaac is brilliant as José Ramos-Horta and Damon Gameau stands out from the other journalists, although Gyton Grantley and Mark Leonard Winter still shine in their short appearances. Only the late-arriving Channel Nine journalists don’t have the time to become anything other than tragic victims.
The characters are well developed by the Connolly-David Williamson screenplay of Jill Jolliffe’s bookCover-Up. The double-flashback approach is the only flaw of the film.
Baliboisn’t an easy movie to enjoy, especially if you know of the long inertia that surrounded the now confirmed deaths of six innocent journalists. It will leave you raging against government apathy and Indonesian ruthlessness. However, it is told in such a fine dramatic and powerful way, even international audiences will be moved. Connolly has delivered a political movie strong on impact and light on sentimentality. But, he really has delivered.
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