Main Cast: Moreno De Bartolli, Miki Manojlovic, Mirjana Karanovic, Mustafa Nadarevic, Mira Furlan
Release Year: 1985
Country: YU/ES
Run Time: 144 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
The Yugoslavian When Father Was Away on Business (Otac na Sluzbenoh Putu) takes place in the early 1950s. The title is a euphemism: because of the strained relationship between Yugoslavia and the USSR, various private citizens have disappeared in the middle of the night, accompanied by the police. One such "vanishing" individual is Miki Manojlovic, the father of 6-year old Moreno D'E Bartolli, from whose viewpoint this story is told When Manojlovic, an employee in the labor ministry is whisked away to prison, his family reacts with pride, assuring one and all that he is "away on business" because of his fervent political beliefs. The sad truth: Manojlovic has ended up behind bars because of his sexual peccadilloes. The film details the tribulations of a fatherless family struggling to cope with the financial deprivations of Communism. Director Emir Kusturica won the Cannes Film Festival Golden Palm award for his work on When Father Was Away on Business. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Set in post-World War IIBosnia during the Informbiro period, the film tells the story through the eyes of a young boy Malik whose father Meša (played by Miki Manojlović) has been suspected of working for Cominform and sent to a labor camp after a careless remark about a political newspaper cartoon.
The movie opens in June 1950 with a local serenading field workers with Mexican songs because it's "safer" as the children climb trees and play around.
The story is from the perspective of the boy, Malik, who is led to believe that his father is on a business trip. Malik is a chronic sleepwalker.
After a while, Meša's wife and children rejoin him in Zvornik, where Malik meets Maša, the daughter of a Russian doctor. He falls in love with her, last sees her when the ambulance takes her away.
At the wedding of his uncle, Malik witnesses his father's affair with the pilotess, who afterwards tries to kill herself with the toilet's flush cord. Sena reconciles with her brother, who's been diagnosed with diabetes.
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