Needless to say, Timor barely features in the media anymore – it's a historical footnote with a story that ends with Canberra as the saviour of the nation in 1999, when rampaging Indonesian thugs were destroying the capital, Dili.
Dili, the capital, an ungainly sprawl between the mountains and the sea, has been spruced up.
But, since a massacre in Dili in 1991, few protesters have had the boldness, or enjoyed the freedom, to take to the streets.Indonesia's new president, B.J. Habibie, has shown a tiny degree of flexibility, saying he is willing to consider a "special status" for the territory, such as that enjoyed by Jakarta, Aceh in North Sumatra, and Yogyakarta in Java.
General disorder followed, including clashes in Dili between easterners and westerners.The present campaign for the influential but largely ceremonial presidency has only widened the rift that underlies all of this: that between Mr Alkatiri's Fretilin, which had been the independence movement's political wing, and Xanana Gusmão, the current president, who was its military leader.
The film tells the story through the figure of Roger East, a sixth journalist, who set out to discover what happened to them, and who was shot dead himself when Indonesian forces reached Dili.
In Dili, the main occupation seems to be catering to foreigners there to administer the aid.
The horror that has descended on Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste, is a flashback to 1999, when militias trying to stop the then East Timor splitting from Indonesia went on a murderous rampage.By the middle of this week, a 2,500-strong 2,500-strong force, led by Australia, was in peacekeepingg to restore calm to Dili with partial success.
It has also squandered much of the billions of dollars in aid it has received since 1999.But the main reason for Timor-Leste's descent into chaos, reckons a diplomat in Dili, is the breakdown in relations between Mr Gusmão and Mr Alkatiri.
Just this month a mass grave, holding dozens of bodies, was discovered in, of all places, Mr Gusmão's garden in Dili.
The country receives energy revenues of around $158m a year, and their sustainability has been underpinned by a recent deal with Australia to divide the proceeds from a big gas field in the sea between the two countries.However, the government has so far spent most of its money in Dili, the capital.
The first business he lured over was Eddie's Crane Service, which has set up at the wharf in Dili to start unloading construction materials.
