When Father Was Away on Business (1985)
"Otac na sluzbenom putu" (original title)

Tito's break-up with Stalin in 1948 marked the beginning of not only confusing, but also very dangerous years for many hard-core Yugoslav communists. A careless remark about the newspaper ... See full summary »

Director:

Emir Kusturica

Writer:

Abdulah Sidran

Stars:

Moreno D'E Bartolli, Predrag Manojlovic, Mirjana Karanovic

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 3 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Moreno D'E Bartolli	...	Malik
Predrag Manojlovic	...	Mehmed Mesa Zolj (as Miki Manojlovic)
Mirjana Karanovic	...	Senija Sena Zolj
Mustafa Nadarevic	...	Zijah Zijo Zulfikarpasic
Mira Furlan	...	Ankica Vidmar
Predrag Lakovic	...	Kucepazitelj Franjo
Pavle Vujisic	...	Dedo Muzamer
Slobodan Aligrudic	...	Ostoja Cekic
Eva Ras	...	Ilonka Petrovic
Aco Djorcev	...	Dr. Ljahaov (as Aleksandar Dorcev)
Emir Hadzihafizbegovic	...	Mladji ujak
Zoran Radmilovic	...	Pilot
Jelena Covic	...	Natasa
Tomislav Gelic	...	Berberin Hamdo
Davor Dujmovic	...	Brat Mirza

Storyline

Tito's break-up with Stalin in 1948 marked the beginning of not only confusing, but also very dangerous years for many hard-core Yugoslav communists. A careless remark about the newspaper cartoon is enough for Mesha to join many arrested unfortunates. His family is now forced to cope with the situation and wait for his release from prison. The story is told from the perspective of Malik, his young son who believes the mother's story about father being "away on business".

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Plot Keywords:

anti communist | child nudity | political prisoner | sarajevo yugoslavia | infant nudity | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

R

Details

Official Sites:

Films sans Frontières [fr]

Country:

Yugoslavia

Language:

Serbian Hungarian

Release Date:

11 October 1985 (USA)

Also Known As:

When Father Was Away on Business

Filming Locations:

Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Company Credits

Production Co:

Centar Film, Forum Sarajevo

Technical Specs

Runtime:

136 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in Maradona by Kusturica (2008)

User Reviews

Tradition, Politics, Family relations - excellent!

A Shu-fan wrote: "The Zolj family is of Jewish origin. The circumcision scene and the later bath of the boy are absolutely comical. Though in difficult time, the innocence of children is expressed in great lovely details, Malik's interest in other sex, his father's predicament… The filming location was Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, a place where the Jews and Muslims were killing each other. Kosovo is another long-stay pain. The body and soul of this region will take a long long time to restore." I just want to say that the family in the movie is not Jewish. They are Bosnian Muslim family and that is why they had a circumcision. Also, to people from ex-Yu is very clear when they hear their names. Their neighbor is Bosnian Serbian family (visible from the scene of the funeral); and Ankica is Bosnian Croatian (they are mostly Roman Catholics). Otherwise, I saw the movie 3 times in the last 15-20 years and every time I saw a different things in the movie, but overall

• I just loved it! There is one thing that I have to mention - the

subtitles are pretty bad and do not do the justice to the movie - they can be expressed much, much better! I am Kusturica's fan and it is too bad that we can not see more of his movies here in the US. This movie is just beautiful - political situation, family ties, relationships in ex-Yu... seen through the eyes of an innocent child. Beautiful, beautiful!