Papa ist auf Dienstreise

Winner of the award for Best Film at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival and Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Film, Emir Kusturica's When Father Was Away on Business is a blend of comedy, family drama, and political realism that is courageous, funny, and deeply moving. The title of the film refers to the lie told to a six-year-old to cover up the fact that his father was serving time in a labor camp for making a thoughtless remark that offended the Communist apparatchiks. Set in Yugoslavia in 1950 after the break between Stalin and Tito, it was a time of confusion when people worshiped Stalin one week and despised him the next. The story is told from the perspective of six-year-old Malik (Moreno D'E Bartolli) and his performance is natural and convincing.

His father Mesa (Miki Manojlovic) is a low-level bureaucrat who spends more time womanizing and drinking than attending to his job. A casual remark filled with sarcasm about a political cartoon made to his wife Sena's (Mirjana Karanovic) sister-in-law Ankica (Mira Furlan), leads to his arrest and detention by Zijo (Mustafa Nadarevic), a Communist Party official who also happens to be his wife's brother. Mesa is sent to work in the mines while Sena becomes a seamstress to make ends meet and his sensitive son starts sleepwalking, perhaps a wry metaphor for the status of the people under Marshal Tito.

The family does reunite when Mesa is sent to a remote settlement for further re-socialization but he does not change his ways and visits prostitutes with the party official in charge of his rehabilitation, using Malik as his escort. In a sub-plot, Malik (who looks and acts more like ten or eleven than six) "falls in love" with a girl about his age who is suffering from a serious blood disorder and their inevitable separation is quite touching. Though family relations are strained, especially between Sena, Zijo, and Ankica, the family is very strong and we know that somehow they will endure. When Father Was Away on Business is perhaps the least daring cinematic ally of all of Kusturica's works but it is one of the most heartfelt and gained the director his first international success, paving the way for the full maturation of his vision in the brilliant and disturbing Underground.

When Father was away on Business (1985)**** This great feature is the combination of a genuine story, emotionally charged, authentic expression, supreme inner movie energy and director's ability (mastery) to transmit all of this into the perfectly balanced, aesthetically elegant, touching and effective form. Some people (I know) think this is pretty boring and ordinary story about young boy's maturing in a specific society. There is a BIG difference between this movie and others with the same topic. Difference = cogency, dimension of the used movie elements, involving ability, characterization, leitmotif, milieu richness, inward thrust, story heartbeat, delicacy, depth, implicit sense, specific movie efficiency...

I remember when I saw this movie back in 1986, the people I was with left the theater bored and puzzled because of my reaction to the movie. I can't explain quite well what was that fascinated me so much about the story. I think it was because you can breathe the reality of the story, I swear I was there with the little boy and the suffering of the family. I was there, understanding the complexity, but simplicity at the same time, of the people and history of that part of the world. It is a movie you have to watch to understand and let it take you where Kusturica wants to.

I simply can't believe there are so few viewer comments for this movie, that won the PALME D'OR in Cannes in 1985! By the way, it represented Yugoslavia, a country wich no longer exists...It was much of a surprise back then, as Kusturica was totally unknown, and the movie was entirely produced at home with no financial contribution from abroad. No doubt, this is in the top 3 of best Yugoslavian films, if not he best one ever.

This film is a historical, not only because it deals with a specific historical context, but most of all, because it was all done in SARAJEVO a mere six years before the outbreak of war, at a time when nobody suspected how things would eventually turn out. Note that the movie shows a place where Muslims, Christians and Jews coexist in peace, and this is quite a symbol today when you watch it knowing what came next. It is highly probable that some of the crew died during the Yugoslav conflict, which took place around that same city and cost 300,000 lives.

The lead role by little Moreno de Bartolli is certainly one of the most amazing child performances on screen ever. Otherwise, two of the actors appeared in famous films after that. Miki Manojlovic who plays the father, is a Kusturica regular, and has become famous internationally; the late Davor Dujmovic who plays the elder brother plays also the lead role as Perhan in "Time of the Gypsies". Generally speaking, all the acting here is first class.

Also, it isn't so often that the world of adults is shown through the eyes of a child, and when it's done, it is often in a twee or awkward manner. Not at all here. Besides, Kusturica's first work has a very honest and sensitive approach of themes like fatherhood, adultery and betrayal. It 's all lightyears away from the frenzy found in the artist's later work.

Warning : this movie is highly emotional. When I saw it again recently after a long time, I'm not ashamed to say I wept twice, and I'm not a single case. Yet, it is often very funny as well. Note that, unlike many European movies, it ends rather well and on a hopeful note. If you like tragi-comical movies like "the Bicycle Thief", no doubt you will love this too.

The very light sexual allusions and nudity caused an R rating in America. Quite a pity, as this work is far more decent than most releases, and would be a lot more interesting and appealing for young audiences than the idiotic stuff they are used to watch. I would even consider showing this in schools.

Definitely a 10 out of 10, as far as I'm concerned.

There have been several movies about the adult world as seen by children. "Daniel" and "Matinee" are good examples from the United States. A good one from the former Yugoslavia is Emir Kusturica's "Otac na sluzbenom putu" ("When Father Was Away on Business" in English).

When Sarajevo man Mesa is arrested in 1950 for criticizing a cartoon, his wife Sena has to tell son Malik that the dad is on a business trip. As the movie progresses, Malik comes to understand the political status quo in this country straddling east and west.* Moreover, it becomes clear that Mesa is not the world's most responsible person, preferring to go screw attractive women to raising his son.

One thing is that I like seeing films about cultures that we rarely see. Beyond that, this look at political tensions - and how the boy has to learn about sex on his own - fascinates me. I definitely recommend the movie.

PS: Emir Kusturica also directed "Arizona Dream" (starring Johnny Depp, Jerry Lewis and Faye Dunaway) in the United States) and "Black Cat, White Cat" back in his native country.

*Tito's disagreements with Stalin led to Yugoslavia's expulsion from the Eastern Bloc, so it aligned itself with the west but maintained an Eastern Bloc-style government.