Natasha Robinson – As Anthony La Paglia sits on a Darwin balcony overlooking over the Timor Sea, he insists that his latest project, Balibo, is much more than a ripping Australian political thriller.

"Balibo is not a parochial Australian film about a parochial Australian event," the Australian-born actor says. "I haven't seen a story like this since The Killing Fields or Salvador."

La Paglia, who plays special agent Jack Malone in the US missing persons drama Without A Trace but retains a strong commitment to the Australian film industry – has begun shooting photography in Darwin for the film.

Balibo is the story of the 1975 slaughter of five Australian journalists in then-Portuguese Timor in October 1975, told through the eyes of Australian freelance journalist Roger East, who is played by La Paglia.

East travelled to Timor following the Balibo killings and was himself executed by an Indonesian soldier at Dili wharf on December 8, 1975.

The young future East Timorese president Jose Ramos Horta, played by Oscar Isaac, is the other lead role in the film.

Directed and produced by Melbourne-based Arenafilm duo Robert Connolly and John Maynard, the film will be shot in Darwin and East Timor.

More than five years ago, David Williamson's daughter Rebecca, also one of the film's producers, approached La Paglia in Los Angeles and told him the story of the Balibo Five and the decades-long political aftermath.

After reading Australian journalist Jill Joliffe's book Cover Up: The Inside Story of the Balibo Five, La Paglia was committed to the project, and rallied his mates Connolly and Maynard to make the film happen.

"Getting here hasn't been an easy road," said La Paglia, who has partly financed the film. La Paglia sees his character, a left-leaning reporter from a radical NSW family, as the forgotten man in the story of Balibo. "Whenever they talk about the journalists that were killed in Balibo, or in East Timor, they talk about five," the actor said. "He's always been left out."

Young actors Damon Gameau, Gyton Grantley, Nathan Phillips, Mark Winter and Thomas Wright play the roles of the Balibo Five.

The Australian Film Finance Corporation, now under the umbrella of Screen Australia, has also partly financed Balibo, along with private investors Andrew Myer, venture capitalist Andrew Barlow, and Madman Entertainment's Paul Wiegard. The film is expected to be released by July next year.