# When Father Was Away on Business

When Father Was Away on Business (Serbo-Croatian: Otac na službenom putu, Отац на службеном путу) is a 1985 Yugoslav film by director Emir Kusturica. The screenplay was written by the dramatist Abdulah Sidran. Its subtitle is A Historical Love Film and it was produced by Centar Film and Forum, production companies based in Sarajevo.
Set in post-World War II Yugoslavia during the Informbiro period, the film tells the story from the perspective of a boy, Malik, whose father Meša (Miki Manojlović) was sent to a labour camp. When Father Was Away on Business won the Palme d'Or at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

## 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.
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
* 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."
The Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa cited this movie as one of his 100 favorite films.

### 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.
| Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipient(s) | Result |
| Academy Awards | 24 March 1986 | Best Foreign Language Film | Emir Kusturica | Nominated |
| Cannes Film Festival | 8 – 20 May 1985 | Palme d'Or | Emir Kusturica | Won |
| Cannes Film Festival | 8 – 20 May 1985 | FIPRESCI Prize | Emir Kusturica | Won |
| David di Donatello | 1985 | Best Foreign Director | Emir Kusturica | Nominated |
| Golden Globes | 24 January 1986 | Best Foreign Film | Emir Kusturica | Nominated |
| National Board of Review | 27 January 1986 | Top Foreign Films | Emir Kusturica | Won |
| Pula Film Festival | 20–27 July 1985 | Big Golden Arena for Best Film | Emir Kusturica | Won |
| Pula Film Festival | 20–27 July 1985 | Golden Arena for Best Actress | Mirjana Karanović | Won |