The story of Kirsty Sword Gusmão, who went to East Timor as a documentary maker and became a revolutionary and First Lady of a new nation, is a fairytale for our times.
Now it has been made into a film which will open the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival on 9 May. Sword went to Indonesia to make a film and was recruited into the Timorese resistance under the code name ‘Ruby Blade’. Alias Ruby Blade takes the audience on the journey which brought Sword from filming the birth of a new nation, to becoming an underground operative and liaison with imprisoned leader ‘Xanana’ Gusmão. The film depicts the romantic relationship that blossomed between the two and illustrates the impact that an individual can have in changing the course of history.
