Anthony LaPaglia, shown at a charity football match in Santa Monica, Calif., in June, is to star as Roger East, a journalist who investigates the murder of five journalists in East Timor. (Mark Mainz/Associated Press)

Filming begins in northern Australia on Monday on a movie about the Balibo Five, a group of journalists who were killed by Indonesian troops in 1975.

The film Balibo is being directed by Robert Connolly, who helmed The Bank, and was written by David Williamson, screenwriter for Gallipoli and The Year of Living Dangerously.

It will tell the story of the deaths of five journalists working for Australian media in October 1975, during an Indonesian invasion of the border town of Balibo that preceded the full invasion of East Timor.

The journalists included two Australians, reporter Greg Shackleton and sound recordist Tony Stewart, a New Zealander, cameraman Gary Cunningham, and two British nationals, cameraman Brian Peters and reporter Malcolm Rennie.

An Australian inquest into Peters's death last year concluded they were deliberately shot by Indonesian troops to prevent them reporting on the invasion of East Timor.

The film's producer, John Maynard, said the film will "tell the truth," about the controversial murders, which have been a political football in Australia for more than 30 years.

Indonesia has already launched a complaint about the film, with a foreign ministry official last week calling on Australia to represent Indonesia's side of the story.

Maynard said he had received no direct request from Indonesia.

"We've had no requests to represent Indonesia's point of view," he said. "But I can assure you what we're going to show and screen is what actually happened."

Indonesia has claimed the journalists were "communist sympathizers" and even claimed they were armed combatants. Their remains were taken to Jakarta and buried, rather than returned to Australia.

Australian actor Anthony LaPaglia, star of hit U.S. television series Without A Trace, has been cast in the role of journalist Roger East, who investigated the killings. The film also stars Oscar Isaac.

East was also killed after remaining in East Timor during the invasion. A Reuters journalist who left Indonesia just before the military crackdown, Jill Jolliffe, wrote the book, Cover-Up, about the deaths of the Balibo Five and the unresolved grief of their families.

Her book, published in 2001, accuses the Australian government of helping to cover up the circumstances surrounding their deaths.

Over the next four weeks the movie will film in Australia's Northern Territory, near Darwin, then relocate to East Timor for another month of filming.

Balibo is scheduled for release in 2009.

With files from Australian Broadcasting Corp.