Perak, Malaysia. For over 30 years, a picture of a man has hung on the wall of an old house. The family who lives there is reluctant to talk about it and who he was. Absent Without Leave delves into the history of this mysterious person, the director’s grandfather and a soldier for the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) who lost his life in the 1949 independence movement. During WWII, students and laborers established the MCP in order to fight against Japanese invaders. However, their hopes of liberation after the end of the war were dashed when the country was put under British colonial rule. Undaunted, the MCP continued to organize guerrilla attacks against the new colonial threat. But when the dust finally settled, those remaining were forbidden to speak or banished from Malaysia altogether. Their stories flitter forth into contemporary Malaysian society from a history sullied by Cold War logic and imperial invasion. Director Lau Kek Huat looks into his family’s past to uncover contemporary political, racial, and geopolitical rifts, and carefully restores the tucked away memories of the MCP. (HONG Soin)