Absent Without Leave

In 1992 Australian soap star Craig McLachlan (Neighbours) landed in New Zealand, to tackle one of his earliest starring roles in a movie. McLachlan plays Ed — a WWll soldier who goes AWOL — in a story 74-year-old writer James Edwards drew from his own life. When Ed is shipped overseas with no leave, he feels obliged to make sure that his recently pregnant wife Daisy (Katrina Hobbs, from Home and Away) is OK before he departs. But then the days become weeks. For director John Laing the road movie offered a chance to explore changing gender roles, as women discovered life beyond house and family.