It's the movie every expat in Timor-Leste has been talking about, the movie the Aussie media has been in a frenzy about and the movie some Indonesians would rather forget about.
The real-life story that the movie Balibo is based on was always going to overshadow the film itself, but no-one could have predicted how much of a talking point this would all become.
Despite being banned by censors in Indonesia, Robert Connolly's Balibo is already freely available for the throngs of travelers who visit Bali. Copies of the DVD are stacked innocuously next to the likes of Paranormal Activity and Avatar at pirate stores all over the island. The same is said to be true in Jakarta.
Officially released on August 13, the movie tells of the fate of five Aussie-based television journalists who were murdered in Timor-Leste in 1975 by members of the Indonesian military who were in the early stages of invading the country.
Coaxed by a perpetually well-dressed, youthful Jose Ramos-Horta (Oscar Isaac), beer-guzzling Australian journalist Roger East (Anthony LaPaglia) flies to Timor-Leste to uncover the fate of the young journalists who, unbeknownst to him, are already dead. As the Indonesians land in Dili, East is also murdered, but not before managing to growl a few "Mongrels!" at his executors.
The Balibo movie is based on a true story, but it doesn't literally depict how events unfolded, as consulting historian Clinton Fernandes told the Jakarta Globe.
"It is a true story in the sense that it telescopes events that would have taken much longer," he said.
Indonesia's banning of Balibo has only served to generate more publicity for the movie. Indeed, the call for justice for those six journalists is so loud that the rest of the world would be forgiven for not realizing that about 180,000 Timorese died during the Indonesian military occupation of Timor-Leste between 1975-1999.
It all went a little kooky earlier this month when former Indonesian army lieutenant Gatot Purwanto, who has ties with the government of Timor-Leste, made headlines when he admitted to Tempo magazine that the Balibo Five were executed and burned to hide evidence of the Indonesia's invasion, contradicting the previous story that they were killed in crossfire
Purwanto, who said he was there in the border town of Balibo when the five were killed, also claimed the Indonesians were provoked by gunshots coming from the house where the journalists were hiding.
On a side note, Purwanto played a role in the Santa Cruz massacre in 1991, when 271 innocent Timorese were slaughtered by Indonesian troops in Dili.
Shirley Shackleton is the wife of Greg Shackleton, one of the five journalists killed in Balibo. She called Purwanto's original and subsequent statements part of "what now appears to be a blatant attempt to provide an alibi for his commanding officer's part in a deliberate crime against humanity merely to confuse an Australian Federal Police investigation into the Balibo murders".
The debate rolls on with twists and turns, but did anyone actually watch the movie, you know, as a movie, for fun?
And is it blasphemous to say I wasn't bowled over by Balibo?
The development of the Balibo Five and their story seemed constricted to the point of being lost. I didn't believe that they wanted to stay in Timor-Leste while all around them were telling them to go. I didn't feel like they wanted to put their necks on the line for some kind of greater cause.
Ultimately their deaths were significant, but in the movie they seemed like five young guys on some kind of thrillseeking mission. The movie didn't give the characters any kind of motive for putting themselves in the firing line.
I also wasn't convinced by Roger East's swerve from desperately wanting to go home and nearly drowning Jose Ramos-Horta to choosing to stay on in Dili knowing that he would probably be killed there.
When LaPlagia was wading through the river trying to find his way home, I half-expected him to look up to the sky and see Ramos-Horta's face in the clouds peering down at him, uttering words of encouragement.
The Balibo movie has become important because it thrusts into the limelight the deaths of the Five and Roger East. It's good that this issue is getting attention, certainly.
However, the movie gave little attention to the Timorese plight except in the closing scenes, which I thought were well done, but not particularly compelling. Compare this to the TV drama Answered By Fire, which had me on the edge of my seat, charged with anger and sadness, eyes full of tears.
I know a lot of people put a huge amount of effort into making Balibo as historically accurate as possible, so I don't want to slate the movie. I'm not criticizing the historical merit of it, but I was expecting to draw emotion from the movie.
I wanted to be outraged when the journalists were slaughtered, but their naivety in the film made it difficult. Again, I'm looking at this purely as a movie. I expect to take some flak for writing this, but those are my first impressions.
There is perhaps some irony in Ramos-Horta being shown so riled up and emotional in his quest for justice for the people of Timor-Leste. Ask him today and he will tell you with some passion about the virtues of amnesty for perpetrators of crimes against humanity committed during the occupation years.
I thought LaPlagia put in a solid performance as Roger East and Isaac's Ramos-Horta was convincingly cocksure. The Timorese cast in the movie were exceptional, so hats off to them.
I'll probably watch Balibo again in the next few weeks. In the meantime, anyone who wants more background information need only go to Google News and search "Balibo".