Welcome back to Movie Recap. Today I'm gonna show you a 2009 Australian war film called,
Balibo. Spoiler’s ahead. Sit back, relax and enjoy the video.
The movie begins with the interview of Juliana Da Costa, born in Dili, a single mother of
four and a witness of the cruelty that her country experienced when the world turned
a blind eye when Indonesia invaded East Timor. In 1975, East Timor declared independence from
the Portuguese after 400 years. Unfortunately, 9 days after that, they were invaded by Indonesia.
Juliana travels for hours to attend an interview and tell her story about what
happened in Dili last December 1975. According to Juliana she was 8 years old during that time
and her father sent her to her grandmother’s house on the other side of the town. She also adds that
everyone knows that their country is about to be invaded. There were seven of them in the car
and they planned to go to the mountains to hide but they were stopped and captured by the army.
The interviewer asks Juliana if she knows someone from the crowd during that time and she answers,
she knows Roger East an Australian journalist. It is a normal busy day in Australia in 1975.
Jose Ramos-Horta visits Roger East in his office but tells his secretary to inform Horta that he is
busy. Despite being avoided, Horta is persistent to speak to Roger. During Roger’s lunch break,
Horta interrupts him and introduces himself as the secretary of Foreign Affairs in East Timor.
He also adds that the reason why he travels for a long time is to relay his proposition to him.
After work, Roger invites him to his house. Horta tells him that he reads much of his works and
enjoys them. The two have a great time talking about Roger’s work while drinking alcohol when
suddenly Horta asks Roger’s permission to speak openly. He tells him that he is unique because
he writes with passion and delivers important things that matter to the world. That's why
on behalf of his government, he would like to offer him to be the head of their news agency
in East Timor that will give him access to their country and its people. He asks for his decision
because the matter is urgent, and they desperately need his help in telling the world their story.
The next morning, Roger wakes up with the news that the Fretilin’s government is preparing its
force in the possible Indonesian invasion, but the Indonesia keeps on denying it. Horta receives
a phone call, after that, he hurriedly packs his things to leave and tells Roger that his country
is about to close the flights going to his country so he needs to decide now if he will help them.
Roger refuses the offer and tells Horta to look for a younger journalist because he
has already retired. Horta answers that Roger’s country has already sent five young journalists,
but they are nowhere to be found. He hands over the documents that
contain the information of the missing journalists then leaves.
That night, Roger checks the documents and afterwards gets the courage to finally accept
Horta’s offer and finds his missing colleagues. The next morning, he goes to a journalist who just
arrived from East Timor. Roger tells him about Horta’s offer to run the East Timor Free Press,
but the journalist thinks it is insane and testifies that the Indonesians warships are
off the coast and are preparing for the invasion. He also adds that it is very dangerous to go there
because the Indonesians are already on the ground and are not in uniform, that’s why they don’t
know who to trust. Roger asks if he sees the journalists of Channel 7 and 9 on his way out
and he answers that he saw Shackleton and warned him about the danger, but he didn’t listen.
The next day, Roger prepares his things to go to East Timor and checks what happened
to his colleagues. The names of the five missing journalists are Brian Peters, Tony Stewart, Gary
Cunningham, Greg Shackleton and Malcolm Rennie. Finally, Roger arrives in Hotel Turismo in Dili,
East Timor. He checks the logbook and finds the names of the missing journalists.
The young Juliana welcomes Roger while Juliana’s father prepares a delicious fish for him.
Roger asks Juliana’s father to join him for a glass of wine then asks him about
his missing journalists. He answers that they were there three weeks ago and went to Balibo.
He also adds that Horta is the one who arranged their trip. After his scrumptious meal,
Roger teaches Juliana on how to toss a coin which she successfully learned fast.
Juliana informs Roger that the missing journalists left their bags in the hotel.
Roger checks it and finds some tapes and personal belongings of the journalists.
The next day, Roger meets Horta and asks why he didn’t inform him that he was the one who arranged
the journalists’ trip to Balibo. He admits that he was the one who arranged it but only if it was
safe. Roger is very disappointed and asks Horta if there are other things that he forgot to tell him.
Roger also insists on meeting the driver who drove the journalists to Balibo.
At first, Horta refused because of the danger, and he has a lot of things to do in Dili
but Roger is persistent so he makes a deal that he will bring him to the driver but after that, they
will go back to Dili and run their news agency. Roger and Horta finally arrive in Maubara and
see a terrible situation, there are a lot of wounded soldiers from the frontlines.
Horta says that they will spend the night there and they will look for the driver the next day.
Roger wakes up and sees that the armed men bid goodbye to their loved ones.
Horta explains that the Indonesians are advancing the war, so everyone needs to retreat to Dili.
He also introduces him to the driver who drove his colleagues, but only gives them 5 minutes to talk.
He asks him about the whereabouts of the journalists and the driver answers that he
drove for them in Balibo but during the time that they need to go, the journalists are nowhere to
be found. Horta cuts the conversation, but Roger finds hope that they are still alive, so he asks
the driver to draw him a map to Balibo. Horta says that it is impossible to go there because
the roads are blocked but Roger insists that they can go there on foot, but it will take them 12-14
hours. Aside from the danger, Horta also thinks that Roger cannot endure the trip because of his
age. Despite the consequences, they still go to Balibo to find the journalists. On their way to
the location, a helicopter flies above and shoots them. Luckily, they escape the hands of death.
The scene of the missing journalists is shown wherein they arrive in a chapel.
They see people walking towards the mountain and the priest says that they are refugees fleeing
from the border. The journalists are delighted upon hearing that there is a swimming pool at
the back of the chapel. They happily swim together with the locals. Despite the fear,
the journalists still go to Balibo. While they are conducting a report, a bomb suddenly
explodes. They hurriedly ride the van and escape. After the accident that Roger experienced, he
tells Horta that he wants to go home and cannot do the task anymore. He is extremely devastated and
scared to death. Horta asks what will happen to the missing journalists and to the people of his
country if he will stop now but Roger has already decided and answers that there are other people
stronger than him that will help the journalists and the problem of Horta’s country is not his
problem. Horta is very disappointed with Roger's answer. He mentions that the helicopter who tried
to kill them is from America and the reason why the helicopter found and shot them in the middle
of nowhere is because of the intelligence that is provided by Roger’s Australian government,
and they are also the one who told the Indonesians that he and the missing journalists are there.
Another scene of the journalists is shown. After they escaped the bombing,
they hide in the secluded village and interview the locals there. The locals ask the questions
why the Indonesians would like to invade their country, why the Portuguese didn’t
help them and why the world doesn’t care about their sufferings. The journalists
are moved and promise them that they will help them find out the answers to their questions.
Going back to Roger and Horta, they arrive in a village and see a lot of dead bodies of young
and old, men and women on the ground. They burst into tears upon seeing the situation. After that,
they help the survivors bury the bodies of their loved ones. The situation is very heart breaking.
Horta tells Roger that the journalists are already killed by the Indonesian army just
like what happened to his people so they should stop the search and go back but Roger insists on
continuing and going to Balibo because he still believes that there are still survivors there.
He wants to know what happened to the journalists and give them justice. Horta exclaims with
disappointment that Roger only cares for the journalists but not the innocent people who died
because of this war. Roger answers that he also cares for them but the people whom he is writing
for don’t care about the thousands of brown people who died, and that news will only go to the last
page of the newspaper but if he will find out what happened to the missing Australian journalists,
that news will probably go to the front page. They get offended with each other’s words
and that ends up in a physical fight. They jump in the swimming pool and struggle with each other.
Horta cannot take it anymore so he gets out from the water and tells Roger that everything’s over
and no one will even know that they existed and warns Roger that he will surely die if
he will continue his trip to Balibo then leaves. Going back to the scene with the five journalists,
they are busy taking videos of the Indonesian ships off the coast. After they shot the video,
they ask a man to keep the tape and bring it to the authorities so they will know what’s going on.
After that, one of the journalists paints the name of their country,
Australia and their national flag thinking that it will protect them from harm and imagine that the
place will be an Australian embassy in the future. Roger falls asleep after his fierce fight with
Horta. He wakes up with a strange sound that comes from another room.
He gets up to check it and is very surprised that two of Horta’s men are torturing a wounded man.
Roger tries to stop them and exclaims that they should not do that because he is one of them,
but the men answer that he is a traitor that helped Indonesians take Balibo. The wounded man
says that some dead bodies were dragged into the Chinese house including the journalists.
Roger asks one of Horta’s men to accompany him to the Chinese house that the wounded man mentioned.
The man says that it is possible but dangerous. Despite the consequences, Roger still goes there.
Going back to the scene with the five journalists, the man warns them that
they only have a few minutes left to prepare because the Indonesians are about to attack.
A man tries to convince the journalists to escape but they are persistent to shoot the situation
so that people will know what is happening. They go near the location and see that the enemies are
changing their clothes as disguised. The enemies arrive and the journalists run for their lives.
They finally enter a room and hide there will all the videos that they shoot. They peek in a
hole to check what’s going on outside. One of the journalists decides to go out and talk to
them thinking that they will not harm them because they are Australian journalists but unfortunately,
he shoots him in the head. After that, the enemies go inside the room and kill the three other
journalists. One of the journalists runs outside and tries to save the film but unfortunately,
the enemies catch and kill him as well. That evening, Roger bravely decides to go
to Balibo with Horta’s man. He is heartbroken to see the room filled with blood stains where
the journalists were killed. They see ashes and realize that the dead bodies were burned there.
In the morning, on the way out to Balibo, a group of men arrive.
Horta’s man tells Roger that he will lead the enemies away for him to escape.
After that, he hears gunshots. Roger bravely goes through the river and the forest.
He is very tired and exhausted. He stares at the fish in the river. Then suddenly, he is already in
Hotel Turismo’s restaurant and in front of him is the fish that Juliana’s father prepared for him.
Julia’s father gives him a wine to celebrate because he returns safe and alive. Roger tells
Juliana’s father to leave the place for the sake of his daughter but he refuses because
he thinks that the hotel still needs him so he will just send Juliana to his grandmother to hide.
Horta arrives and eats with Roger and tells him that something remarkable happened when he was
away. His people find out his quest in finding his colleagues so they would like to reveal the truth.
Horta asks Roger to come with him and leave East Timor because according to their intelligence,
Indonesia is about to invade the whole country but Roger refuses because he thinks that if he leaves,
no journalist will be left to reveal the truth. Roger reveals the truth of what happened to the
missing journalists in the news. While writing his report, he suddenly hears a loud noise outside.
When he checks it, he sees a terrifying situation wherein the Indonesian army is invading the place.
Unfortunately, they don’t have enough time to escape. The Indonesian army enters his office
and drags him out of the building. They also destroy all his equipment.
They kill innocent and harmless people. Roger shouts and tells them that he is an Australian
journalist, but the army still kill him. All these things are witnessed by the young Juliana.
The movie ends with Juliana's interview. There is a note that more than
8,000 Timorese came forward to tell their stories about the Indonesian colonization.
They confirmed that more than 183,000 East Timorese died during this time.
Horta represented his country in exile for 24 years and received a Nobel Peace Prize last 1996
and in 1999 he finally returned to his homeland after its liberation from
Indonesian rule. Unfortunately, the killers of Roger and the journalists were not determined.