The release of documentaries on the big screen is a fairly rare occurrence. One which has broken through is the regionally relevant Punitive Damage... On the 12th November 1991 during the Dili massacre in East Timor, 20 year old Kamal Bamardhaj was killed. He was a student at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, the son of a New Zealand woman Helen Todd and her Malaysian former husband. The documentary Punitive Damage is the story of his death as told by his mother, his girlfriend, and people who knew him, as well as by journalists who were in Dili that day. It`s also the account of Helen Todd`s suing of General Sintong Panjalian, one of the generals in charge that day in Dili, in a District Court of the United States. It all adds up to a very powerful film experience...New Zealand documentarian Gaylene Preston was the producer of Punitive Damage, Annie Goldson was the director. The film is the most devastatingly damaging portrait of the Indonesian occupation in East Timor where almost a third of the population has been killed, where people live in fear of arrest and torture, and where there is no recourse to any outside help. It`s particularly galling to hear once again about a system of repression that exists so close to our shores. And it`s particularly disconcerting to hear once again that governments put trade above human rights. The documentary lets the participants speak for themselves, it`s beautifully constructed piece of political dynamite that`s tremendously moving. David`s comments: A moving account of a mother`s search for justice. A fine documentary, most powerful when it allows the bereaved woman to tell her story. The courage of the cameraman who shot the Dilli massacre still demands all our admiration.
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