Robin Laing

The Vintner's Luck

A fantasy romance set in 19th century France. The film revolves around Sobran, a young peasant winemaker, and the three important figures in his life - his beautiful wife Celeste, baroness Aurora de Valday and an angel named Xas.

Perfect Strangers

When Melanie goes home from the pub with a handsome stranger, she’s captivated by his charm and attentiveness. He sails her away to his ‘castle’- a rundown shack on a deserted island. But when seduction becomes deception and passion becomes possession, Melanie realizes that she has been kidnapped. Torn between fear and desire, Melanie must escape – but her ardent admirer has other plans.

Dark Stories: Tales from Beyond the Grave

Witness a dinner party with a diabolical main course - obsession is put to the limit when a scorned and demonic woman traps the man of her dreams, submission has never been so terrifying!!! - a grizzly murderer is forced to cover his trail without losing his mind. These eerie tales from the grave will leave you at the edge of your seat, screaming for more. Things are often not what they seem.

Stickmen

Jack, Thomas and Wayne are the Stickmen. They like nothing more than having a beer in one hand, a pool cue in the other, a coin on the table and a sexy bird or two. They play pub pool for fun and money at Dave's bar. Desperate to get out of debt, Dave gets the Stickmen entered into a high stakes pool tournament run by vicious crime boss "Daddy". He also gets them into a whole rack of trouble.

Thinking About Sleep

Robert jumped. Or maybe he slipped. For his friends the truth is difficult to contemplate. A film about love.

The Imploding Self: A Journey Through the Life of Fergus mcLafferty

A journey through the life of Fergus McLafferty. Fergus needs a role model. He chooses a fish with four legs - an axolotl. This inbred freak of nature becomes a metaphor for Fergus' life. The Imploding Self traces Fergus's emotional turning points as he identifies more and more with is axolotl. A lonely, obsessive child turns into a lonely adult, out of touch of reality. As Fergus's mind and body decay, a psychological metamorphosis appears to become a physical reality - or has our reality become his?

Bread & Roses

Based upon the life of activist and trade unionist (and later MP) Sonja Davies. The film covers her life up to 1956, when, at age 33, she was elected to the Nelson Hospital Board. During this period she develops strong socialist beliefs, marries and divorces, at age 17 trains as a nurse, has a romance (and a child) with an American marine who is killed in WWII action. She battles tuberculosis and marries a former boyfriend when he returns from the war. She becomes part of a women's ill-fated campaign to save the Nelson railway line from closure and begins to be elected to political bodies.

Absent Without Leave

In 1942 Wellington, Daisy Edwards, 16 and pregnant, relies totally on her just-wed husband, Ed, who is little older than she. Ed is suddenly drafted into the army and is to be sent overseas to battle while Daisy is sent to her father in Auckland. When Ed's leave is cancelled at the last minute he takes the dangerous decision to go absent without leave to be with Daisy on her journey home. As a deserter, Ed is hunted, captured and imprisoned. Life inside is bad enought without the worry of what is going on outside. The film is based upon a true story.

Stroke

Dorothy (Fiona Samuel), a lone swimmer, luxuriates in tranquil bliss at a deserted pool — only to have her solitude rudely interrupted by a squad of swimmers. A wordless, strikingly choreographed conflict ensues as Dorothy attempts to assert herself against the dehumanised aggression of the swimmers.

Ruby and Rata

Ruby, an 83 year old trying to dodge a retirement home, rents a room to Rata, a solo mum with sidelines in music and benefit fraud. Rata's son is into arson and shoplifting, while Ruby's nephew is a hapless yuppie wannabe. Marginalised by the deregulated economy of the '80s and living on their wits, they may just find common cause despite themselves.

Mr. Wrong

A small town woman, fresh to the city, buys a used Jaguar haunted by the ghost of a woman who was slain in it.

Dangerous Orphans

Three orphaned boys - O'Malley, Rossi and Moir - become blood brothers. When they grow up, they plot revenge on the crooks who got away with shooting O'Malley's father. The crooks are doing very nicely importing heroin and laundering money. The boys begin by killing one of the crooks, stealing his indentification and cleaning out the guy's Swiss bank account. But their revenge does not stop here... And the American end of the operation is getting very curious.