Just Punishment

Australia 2006 / 54min.
Directors Shannon Owen, Kim Beamish / Producer Liz Burke, Shannon Owen, Kim Beamish

Caught in December 2002 at Singapore’s Changi Airport with 396 grams of heroin strapped to his body and hand luggage, 25 year old Nguyen Tuong Van was the first Australian to be executed overseas in more than a decade. Van had no prior criminal record and this was his first trip out of Australia.

This film is a window into the lives of the Nguyen family over two harrowing years of intense media frenzy and high-level diplomatic tension between the two governments. We see through Van’s intimate diary writings, his transformation from a young, naïve and opportunistic drug trafficker to an older, wiser person who comes to accept his fate even though those around him could not.

Producer Liz Burke was approached by Van’s lawyer to make this film in the hope it would help save Van’s life. In 2005, despite worldwide calls for clemency, Van went to the gallows.

Incredibly moving, it will affect you regardless of one’s
personal position on capital punishment.

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