Just Punishment

Australia / 2007 / Kim Beamish & Shannon Owen / 54 mins

On December 22nd, 2002, a young Australian man is on his way home from Asia having taken his first overseas trip. Hours later, he is caught at Changi Airport with 396 grams of heroin strapped to his body and hand luggage. Van Nguyen died 3 years later at the age of 24 when the State of Singapore ordered his execution by hanging, leaving his mother and twin brother behind.

Just Punishment unravels the story of the two years leading up to his execution – the intense media frenzy, the high-level diplomatic tension between the two governments and the personal heartbreak and shock experienced by Van’s family and friends coping with his unexpected arrest in a foreign country.

The film provides for complete access to the family’s plight and tracks the legal team’s attempts to fight the death sentence and at a diplomatic plea. It provides startling access and moving insight into the unseen pressures faced by family and friends coming to terms with the imminent execution. What would you do if your son or brother had been sentenced to be executed? How would you cope? How far would you go to save him?

The film also delves deep into the psychology of the condemned whilst on death row. Through Van’s intimate diary writings, the documentary traces his transformation from a young, naive and opportunistic drug trafficker to an older, wiser individual, who in the face of the hangman’s noose came to accept his fate; even when those around him refused to.

Just Punishment allows us a rare opportunity to comprehend the devastating effects of capital punishment on those close to the executed. It provides an unforgiving lesson as to the consequences of drug trafficking and raises difficult questions as to the morality of mandatory capital punishment.