Indonesia 1965. Revolution is in the air. Foreign journalists covering the feverish unrest are kept at arm's length by the wary Sukarno government. But with the right contacts, you can get a real story. Australian reporter Guy Hamilton is after that kind of story, but he knows the mere telling of it will betray his source.

Mel Gibson is Hamilton and Sigourney Weaver is an enigmatic embassy aide in this taut drama directed by Peter Weir. In a gender-bending performance, Linda Hunt plays a male photographer who sees with his conscience as well as his eyes. "This is what great acting is", Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times, "a magical transformation of one person into another".