Vulcana Wolfe I wish I knew the names of every single person whose unwarranted death is represented by this film. To honor them. To remember. Instead, we do have this version of a story, which in itself is a stark reminder of the horror of the Indonesian invasion of East Timor. Intelligent viewers are usually fully aware that any film cannot possibly contain all the details, nuances and even accuracies of a great story. The film does more than merely insinuate the negligence of Australia, the US, and so forth, though some could miss this altogether.Those of us who were the same age as the journalists around which the story focuses have been well-trained to read between the lines, or view between the frames as it were. So, you can view this as a suspenseful tale half-told, or whatever you wish. All war is atrocious. Here, one seemingly small story resonates through the decades, enough to make us want to know more. Hopefully stories like this will help prevent the world sitting idly by as similar atrocities continue elsewhere. Peace. (Would it could occur everywhere.) Mr. LaPaglia brings a wealth of understanding and compassion to his role as the lone Australian who embarks on a search to learn the truth about five missing Australian journalists. Told through the eyes of a little girl, now an adult, who witnessed the massacre of innocents, this film is indeed riveting. Kudos to the director Robert Connolly and all the cast and crew of this remarkable, though gut-wrenching, film - Balibo.Search online for the article titled East Timor Questions & Answers by Stephen R. Shalom, Noam Chomsky, & Michael Albert, Oct 99. It will fill in some gaps.

Oscar Utomo This movie is historically inaccurate and over exaggerated. Some facts about the real historical events:-The journalist Roger East was never cajoled out of his public service job by the young Fretilin foreign spokesman Jose Ramos Horta to work in East Timor, and nor did Ramos-Horta hand him an AUSTEO (Australian Eyes Only) dossier on the Balibo Five-East and Ramos-Horta never trekked on foot to Balibo, and nor were they attacked by a US helicopter along the way.-The Indonesians didn't attack up the hill in front of the Balibo fort, but from around the back of the village.-The senior commander of the Balibo operation for the Indonesian army, Colonel Dading Kalbuadi, didn't put a pistol to the head of the journalist Brian Peters and shoot him dead. He was 10 km away at the time.-East wasn't captured trying to send his last report from Dili's Marconi radio office.-And it's unlikely that General Benny Murdani, the Indonesian army intelligence chief, was observing the executions of East and Timorese people on the Dili wharf on 8 December, dressed in a white safari suit, though he did parachute into Dili some time that day.

paul david This is a very objective and intelligent film about the Indonesian invasion of East Timor AND five Australian journalists efforts to try and tell the story. It is beautifully filmed and bravo to the amateur local actors used in the film.No answers are given why foreign help was not forthcoming and why Indonesia invaded at all.Balibo is a place in East Timor where terrible tortures of locals happened and where the five journalists went in search of the story.this is a war film in the cast of Tunnels Rats and Killing Fields, produced on a budget quite clearly. I live in Indonesia and I found it enlightening if not completely informative.the film needed to be careful not to focus on the ultimate death of the journalists balanced against the death of the many local timorese.Nothing bad about this film, though those in the know yes will criticise the technical issues of the film such as wrong guns etc but remember again budget movie!

patlightfoot Beside being a fan of Anthony Lapaglia I think he is a very under rated actor. But he won the Best Actor at the AFI awards last Saturday. And I believe he had to relearn his Australian accent having spent so many years in the US of A. From a historical point of view I remember the year but had no idea Roger East was involved in the search for the five missing journalists.But I do remember that Australia was viewing Indonesia with a wary eye. They had a well equipped Army and Whitlam had just been elected as PM. And we had just pulled out of Vietnam. And the Fetilin were considered communists (like the North Vietnamese) hence I believe Australia's lack of support for them.I recall one military expert warning us, Indonesia could prove a threat to Australia one day? Timor is only about 70 miles, I believe from Australia's Northern coast line.However, the film being set in East Timor was very well put together and edited. Considering it was on a strict budget, and the environment they were filming in is still a sensitive part of the world. Since the film was screened one Indonesian man has stepped forward to say he was there and executed the Bilabo five under orders (of course!) although his account has been refuted (of course!) by the 'powers that be' in Indonesia.Now they have banned it seems to suggest they don't like it and I wonder why? Possibly because with the Muslim terrorists active in the area could drive them to more acts of violence against Australia.However, cinematography, music and also the script certainly should commend it to serious film buffs. I found the accents of some of the East Timorese when speaking English, sometimes hard to understand, but that might be just me of course. I don't consider it a spoiler though.I hope it gets nominated for the Academy Awards certainly Anthony's acting deserves some recognition. Well done all those East Timorese who stood in to take on their roles when those events and subsequent atrocities are still fresh in the older generation's minds.I hired it on DVD by the way in Australia.