When Father Was Away on Business

Plot

In June 1950, a local neighbourhood drunk, Čika Franjo, serenades field workers. He sings Mexican songs out of self-preservation, figuring it's safer for him to steer clear of songs originating from either of the two dominant global superpowers—the United States and the Soviet Union—in the prevailing climate of the Cold War. Yugoslavia is experiencing a paranoid and repressive internal apparatus looking to identify and remove enemies of the state in the wake of the Tito–Stalin Split. The local children, including Malik, climb trees and play around. Malik's mother, Sena, tells him that his father is on a business trip, while Malik is a chronic sleepwalker. His father, communist functionary Meša, was, in fact, sent to a labour camp by his own brother-in-law, Sena's brother Zijo, who is an even higher-positioned Communist functionary. Meša had made a remark about a political cartoon regarding the Tito–Stalin Split in the Politika newspaper.

Malik gets circumcised by his father's brother.

After a while, Meša's wife and children rejoin him in Zvornik. Malik meets and falls in love with Maša, the daughter of a Russian doctor, but last sees her when an ambulance takes her away.

At the wedding of his maternal uncle Fahro, Malik witnesses his father's affair with a woman pilot. She later tries to commit suicide by using a toilet's flush cord. Sena reconciles with her brother Zijah, who has been diagnosed with diabetes.

Cast

• Moreno de Bartoli as Malik Malkoč
• Miki Manojlović as Mehmed "Meša" Malkoč
• Mirjana Karanović as Senija "Sena" Malkoč (née Zulfikarpašić)
• Mira Furlan as Ankica Vidmar
• Mustafa Nadarević as Zijah "Zijo" Zulfikarpašić
• Predrag Laković as Franjo
• Pavle Vujisić as Muzafer Zulfikarpašić
• Slobodan Aligrudić as Ostoja Cekić
• Aleksandar Dorčev as Dr. Evgeni Liakhov
• Silvija Puharić as Masha Liakhov
• Emir Hadžihafizbegović as Fahro Zulfikarpašić
• Davor Dujmović as Mirza Malkoč
• Eva Ras as Ilonka Petrović
• Jelena Čović as Nataša Petrović
• Amer Kapetanović as Serjoža Petrović
• Zoran Radmilović as Brko Pilot
• Tomislav Gelić as Hamdo Malkoč, barber and circumciser
• Zaim Muzaferija as the President

Reception

The writer Danilo Kiš described the film as "an artistic and moral endeavour."

In The New York Times, Janet Maslin credited the film for "a humorous, richly detailed portrait" of its characters. Time critic Richard Corliss said the film was worth seeing despite the lack of glamorous settings or characters. Variety staff called it "rather witty commentary" and compared it to Czechoslovak comedy films in the 1960s. John Simon of the National Review described When Father Was Away on Business as "a film of undaunted honesty and unswerving intelligence, borne out aloft by humor, heartache, satire and compassion-an unbeatable combination".

In his 2015 Movie Guide, Leonard Maltin awarded it three and a half stars, praising it as "Captivating". In 2016, The Hollywood Reporter ranked it the 26th best film to win the Palme d'Or, citing it for depicting how "humor and the almost mystical power of family trumps all."

Accolades

When Father Was Away on Business marked Emir Kusturica's first time winning the Palme d'Or, the highest honour at the Cannes Film Festival. He won his second in 1995 for Underground.

References

References

1. "When Father Was Away on Business". [[Box Office Mojo]].
2. Đerić, Zoran. (2009). "Poetika srpskog filma". Besjeda.
3. Maslin, Janet. (28 September 1985). "FILM FESTIVAL; 'WHEN FATHER WAS AWAY'". [[The New York Times]].
4. Corliss, Richard. (21 October 1985). "Cinema: Memory Movie When Father Was Away on Business".
5. Staff. (31 December 1984). "Review: 'When Father Was Away on Business'". [[Variety (magazine).
6. (2005). "John Simon on Film: Criticism 1982-2001". Applause Books.
7. Maltin, Leonard. (2014). "Leonard Maltin's 2015 Movie Guide". Penguin.
8. Staff. (10 May 2016). "Cannes: All the Palme d'Or Winners, Ranked". [[The Hollywood Reporter]].
9. (21 April 2016). "Emir Kusturica, Rep Deny Controversial Cannes Comments". [[The Hollywood Reporter]].
10. "The 58th Academy Awards (1986) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org.
11. "OTAC NA SLUZBENOM PUTU". festival-cannes.com.
12. (1987). "The Motion Picture Guide ... Annual". CineBooks.
13. "When Father Was Away on Business". [[Hollywood Foreign Press Association]].
14. "1985 Award Winners". [[National Board of Review]].
15. "Timeline". [[Pula Film Festival]].
16. "Mirjana Karanović". [[Pula Film Festival]].