Private Project

Guilty

GUILTY is a film about the final days of convicted drug trafficker Myuran Sukumaran, who became an accomplished artist before he was executed by firing squad in Indonesia in April 2015.

  • Matthew Sleeth
    Director
    A Drone Opera, Strange Colours, I Don't See God Up Here, For One Reason Or Another, Green Shoots
  • Matthew Sleeth
    Writer
  • Matthew Bate
    Writer
  • Maggie Miles
    Writer
  • Maggie Miles
    Producer
  • Adam McConvell
    Key Cast
    " Myuran Sukumaran"
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Genres:
    Crime, Drama
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 22 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    October 1, 2017
  • Country of Origin:
    Australia
  • Country of Filming:
    Australia
  • Language:
    English, Indonesian
  • Shooting Format:
    Red
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.39
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Adelaide Film Festival
    Adelaide
    Australia
    October 8, 2017
    World Premiere
  • HRAFF
    Melbourne
    Australia
    May 4, 2018
    Victorian Premiere
Distribution Information
  • Madman Entertainment
    Country: Australia
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Matthew Sleeth

Matthew Sleeth is a visual artist and filmmaker. He is a director, writer and cinematographer known for the films A Drone Opera (2019) and Guilty (2017).

His multi-channel film-installations are exhibited regularly and has recently contributed to the programs of Carriageworks (Sydney), Melbourne International Arts Festival, and Sydney Film Festival.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

GUILTY is a film about the things that kept me awake at night.

Some background: I first met Myuran in 2011 when I started teaching a series of art workshops in Kerobokan Prison. Over the next several years, I watched Myuran grow as an artist and even more impressively as a teacher. He became a mentor to many prisoners through workshops that he ran for other inmates (and even some of the prison staff).

After Myuran’s execution in April 2015, my thoughts kept returning to the act of killing: to the process of taking someone to a field in the middle of the night and shooting them. Not only about how surreal the administrative logistics of this are, but about the damage this does to everyone involved including the people asked to carry out this dirty work. I wanted to make a film that shows how anyone who comes into contact with capital punishment is diminished.

GUILTY is a creative response to living through these events and watching the impact of this process on Myuran and those close to him. After viewing the film, I want people to feel they have met Myuran, walked a little in his shoes and start to understand how it might feel to know the time and manner of your death.

This film is a portrait of a man in his final hours and the clarity this brings. The most important things to Myuran in the end were his family and his art. Contrasting his deep feelings of guilt with the understanding that he was flourishing as an artist and making works he knew would stand a compelling argument against the death penalty. One of the last things he said to me was, ‘they are
killing me just as I’m getting good.’

GUILTY is a film about the punishment, not the crime. An argument against the death penalty should not be taken as a defence of the crime. These are separate arguments - one does not need to follow the other. By presenting in depth the creation of the artworks Myuran so urgently needed to make before his death and a detailed representation of his execution, GUILTY makes these arguments viscerally and asks us to take a position on the value of second chances.