Absent Without Leave (2016) #TDFF2024

R:G

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The story begins with a man’s portrait, which has been hanging for more than 30 years in an old wooden house where I was born and grew up in Perak, Malaysia. It’s long become a taboo that my family do not talk about this man, not even to bring up his name or his past. Eventually, I found out he is my grandfather, who sacrificed his life fighting for Malaysia’s independence and decolonization, but his and his comrades’ stories are excluded from history. This documentary set out to unveil the mysteries.