Stan, Australia’s unrivalled home of original productions, today announced that theStan Original Documentary Revealed: Ben Roberts-Smith Truth On Trial, will premiere in December.
Explosive feature-length documentary Ben Roberts-Smith Truth On Trial follows Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters’s quest to uncover the truth behind rumours that Australia’s most decorated living soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith, committed war crimes in Afghanistan and is a war criminal.
Produced and directed by Dora Weekley, Ben Roberts-Smith Truth On Trial traces the origins of Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters’ groundbreaking and controversial reports in 2018 and the subsequent stories on 60 Minutes, to Ben Roberts-Smith taking them to court in a defamation trial that ended in 2023.
Nick McKenzie said: “Amid all the secrecy and attempts at cover ups, this documentary gives Australians the inside story into the fight by brave SAS soldiers to have the truth about Roberts-Smith revealed as well as our struggle as journalists to ensure the public learned the facts, not the myth, about Roberts-Smith.”
Chris Masters said: “I think of the Ben Roberts-Smith saga as a bundle of stories. We have two journalists inside the assignment of their lives; the elite SAS at war over one of their own; a courtroom drama for the ages, and behind it all, an extraordinary murder mystery.”
From the moment that whispers emerge of a few ‘rotten’ SAS soldiers committing possible war crimes in Afghanistan, journalists Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters set out to test the allegations that Australia’s most celebrated hero, Ben Roberts-Smith, is in fact a war criminal, who repeatedly broke the moral and legal rules of military engagement.
Over five harrowing years, their dogged and determined pursuit of the truth into what occurred in Afghanistan between 2006-2013 runs parallel with military and police inquiries. Not only do they uncover a toxic warrior culture within the regiment but they also discover that Australia’s most venerated soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith, is not who the public thinks he is.
When Roberts-Smith launches Australia’s biggest defamation trial against them, the onus of proving the truth is on them. Soldiers are subpoenaed to testify and break their code of silence. With everything on the line, the truth is laid bare.
Created in collaboration with 60 Minutes, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, Revealed: Ben Roberts-Smith Truth On Trialis the seventh title in Stan’s landmark Revealed documentary slate, following Danielle Laidley: Two Tribes, The Cape, Reefshot, Trafficked, Amongst Us – Neo Nazi Australiaand No Mercy, No Remorse.
The Stan Original Documentary Revealed: Ben Roberts-Smith Truth On Trial is directed and produced by Dora Weekley for Stan. Stan Executive Producers are Cailah Scobie and Amanda Duthie.
The Stan Original Documentary Revealed: Ben Roberts-Smith Truth On Trial will premiere December 10, only on Stan.
