Bravery and Betrayal isn’t just another documentary. It’s the kind of project that forces Australia to confront its own amnesia.

As director Simon J. Heath told me, the film is built on the voices of “the SAS veterans themselves, the widows ... the families.” It’s their account of what really happened, what they “saw with their own eyes and what they experienced.”

He summed the film up simply: “The story is one of bravery.” After 9/11, he recalls, “everyone thought that there was going to be terrorist attacks against Australia,” and our special forces were sent into harm’s way to stop that threat at its source. They “did smash terror cells over there” and tried to make Afghanistan “a place that was a good place to live.”

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But two decades later, a handful of loud voices turned on them and the mainstream media began its attack on our soldiers. “No one was telling their story,” Simon said, until some Navy veterans approached him and insisted it had to be told.

One of the men in the film is “Horse,” a former SASR operator who “joined up back in ‘93” after idolising his World War II–veteran grandfather. His service spanned East Timor, multiple Afghanistan deployments, even creating a new dog capability for Special Operations Command.

But after being medically discharged, life back home collided with headlines, allegations and a culture that had drifted far from the warrior ethos. Kids of soldiers were coming home from school being told “your dad’s a murderer… a war criminal.”

FREEDOM ISN'T FREE: Today we honour those Australians and New Zealanders who paid the price. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we remember them. pic.twitter.com/eyNbR7QGyn

— Rebel News Australia (@RebelNews_AU) November 11, 2025

Despite the noise, they insist Australia hasn’t truly rejected them. “99% of Australia” supports the troops.

The film is now widely available and as Horse put it, its purpose is simple: to “reinvigorate that Anzac spirit” and remind Australians that those who served “attacked the terrorism at its source to stop it from coming here.”

Simon told me the deepest impact comes when a widow or child hugs him and says “thank you.” That’s when he realised the film “belongs to Australia now.”

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BRAVERY AND BETRAYAL: Click here for more information on how to watch the documentary.