Sandy George, Film writer – It has taken four years to work out how to turn the story of the Balibo Five, the TV newsmen killed in East Timor on October 16, 1975, into a feature film. But director Robert Connolly (The Bank, Three Dollars) is confident filming can begin.

"Lots of film-makers have tried to crack this story but haven't been able to," Connolly said yesterday, speaking publicly about the film for the first time. "We finally think we have – by telling it from the East Timorese point of view."

His two key characters are Jose Ramos Horta, now East Timor's Prime Minister but then 25 and a key figure in the Timorese nationalist movement, who went on to win the Nobel prize for peace; and Australian journalist Roger East, who went to East Timor to investigate the deaths and was executed in December 1975 when Indonesia invaded the island. Mr Ramos Horta does not yet know he will feature so strongly in the film.

David Williamson has written the script from Jill Jolliffe's 2001 book Cover-Up, the inside story of the Balibo Five. The film will concentrate on the month following the killings and encompasses key events since, including the NSW coronial inquest into the deaths, due to resume next month.

"Thirty-two years later, the Balibo Five is still deeply rooted in our culture and people are still really troubled by it," Connolly said, referring to the uncertainty surrounding Canberra's role in the invasion of East Timor.

"The film is about journalists in war and what it takes to free a country," he said. "The thing I love about it is that it shows how the truth always comes out. Decisions politicians made 32 years ago are still being investigated in the court."

Connolly and business partner John Maynard, producer for The Balibo Five, said they were committed to exploring political issues. The Bank tackled business ethics, for example. Their next film, Romulus, My Father, is a migrant story. Maynard describes The Balibo Five as his most difficult film yet.

"The cinema world is full of First World heroes going into Third World countries to liberate their citizens, and it doesn't work like that," Maynard said.

"In 20 years, 200,000 people in East Timor, one-third of the population, were killed while the world turned its back on them... Their desire to be independent is like some sort of miracle."