A powerful thriller that applies a blowtorch to a dark chapter in Australian-Indonesian history.

With this year marking the 10th anniversary of East Timor's independence, the MIFF Premiere Fund is proud to present this powerful and moving political thriller about the true events surrounding the execution of five journalists during Indonesian incursions into East Timor in 1975.

Anthony LaPaglia plays Roger East, an Australian journalist who, at the urging of José Ramos-Horta (Oscar Isaac), ventures to East Timor to investigate the truth behind the deaths of the five men and to report on the impending invasion.

The first feature film to be made in East Timor, Balibo stars Damon Gameau, Gyton Grantley, Nathan Phillips, Mark Winter and Tom Wright as The Balibo Five, and is directed by Robert Connolly (The Bank, MIFF 01).