When Father Was Away on Business (1985)

Kusturica can really move me, he's one of very few filmmakers I trust and allow into my life to do that. It is in a very delicate way he can affect, a way that I also know and appreciate deeply from some of the great Zen and Sufi poets. He has that quality, let's call it a duende, of having lived with enough ardor and zest of soul to be able to speak about a sadness that is joy. About pain without ego. Struggle as release.

And on top of that he's so adept with images it hurts. He knows how to frame a small puddle of water so that it reflects entire skies above with many moons, and make the moon seem wet and the waters earthy.

So even though this is a more than fine film and better than most filmmakers accomplished on their second turn behind a camera, I am saddened that it doesn't move me more. This is a rare complaint from me. And this is because I know this man has felt harder than he shows here, and has sung what it means to feel with images that cut deeper. This also cuts, but cuts solemnly, in ordinary way, with mostly serious restraint, with a historic thrust for a respectable account of Yugoslav suffering as the suffering between brothers in law.

It's just not a very enviable or interesting position to want to be the historic chronicler like he's doing here, it just means you have to organize a lot of pedantic detail.

Now I am from around here and can trace roots from every corner of the Balkans to be able to tell that what Kusturica usually writes about is a romance and not an account. This is a frequent complaint of course, acknowledged, moreso from around here where pundits feel somehow threatened or otherwise insulted by this wistful, clowny image broadcast abroad for tourist consumption. So yes, a romance that is about a love and life that is a little more dangerous than from the safe distance of reason, a little more sublime and noble than was today or yesterday, but that is nevertheless imbued with the same reckless spirit that gave rise to the chronicle that Kusturica is only a very recent chapter to.

Meaning this spirit that he has used to make films pre-existed him and carries its own truths from long ago. The family gatherings around food, the common rituals, the stories about honorable scoundrels that may be someone's father or uncle. These songs above all, our main tradition being musical and fiddled continuously on the stage for a few hundred years.

So when he puts it all together, it is not a question of ability that makes a difference and stirs the soul - he was always able, and here just as well - but one of spontaneous creation. There is only a little of that here for my taste, more history. It is touching drama but lacks some of the reflections I prize so much.

Fmovies: The background may be confusing to viewers unfamiliar with post-WWII Balkan history, but this was never (thankfully) meant to be a big-screen social studies lesson. The film is a sentimental (but never mawkish) drama of family life behind the Iron Curtain, as seen through the often glazed eyes of an eight-year old Yugoslav boy (prone to episodes of somnambulism) whose father is arrested for making a casual criticism of an editorial cartoon. Rather than taking potshots at easy political targets, director Emir Kusterica focuses instead on smaller, more intimate conflicts, recounting moments of family affection and bitterness with an understated humor transcending national and cultural borders.

If you are familiar with Emir Kusturica's work, chances are you probably saw "Underground" or "Times of the Gypsies," or perhaps "Black Cat, White Cat." I guess this earlier film is a bit harder to get into because it is less eccentric than the usual Kusturica fair, and it focuses on a specific point of Yugoslav history, namely the time immediately following the break-up between Tito and Stalin. The film itself is very good, but it would certainly help your perception if you were familiar with historical aspect of it all. Some similarities can be drawn to "Tito i ja" because "Otac.." is seen through a child's point of view, but then it was made something like ten years prior to "Tito i ja," so I guess you should disregard that statement altogether. The film is a drama from start to finish, and like other Kusturica's films, it requires much of emotional involvement as well as some patience. But I definitely like it, although it's not for everyone. I still recommend it, though.

When Father Was Away on Business fmovies. I saw this movie in 1990 at a local university campus cinema, found it lovely and painful at the same time. My viewing time was the time of a new beginning to the former Eastern Bloc. Now most of its communist 'allied' are seeking seats with EU or NATO. Later in the same year, I paid a visit to Croatia, what a stunning experience. The natural beauty and the Roman remains are the most impressive. From Monarchy to Communist and to Capitalist, all happened within 100 years, the people of that region have undergone a century's bloody tragedies. Yugoslavia is now a word of past tense, it was divided into several countries, some enjoy peace and some are perpetually in war since the downfall of the bloc in early nineties.

Amongst all the countries there, Yugoslavia somehow enjoyed more liberty and material comfort (some from Italy and Greece) than the others because Tito decisively broke the connection from Stalin. From what I got from the mouths of the Yugoslavians (in 1990), they all respected Tito's determination and boldness.

Malik's womanizer father (Miki Manojlovic) was set up by a woman relative, attractive Ankica (Mira Furlan) after he successfully seduced and then refused her. He was sent to do hard and laborious work far away from home. Little Malik (Moreno D'E Bartolli) wonders why daddy cannot come home often, though his mom keeps telling him that father is on business, he can smell a rat there. Later, when father comes back, he has his retribution on that woman.

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 predicamentÂ… 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. Just wondering what had happened to Moreno D'E Bartolli after all these years, he should have turned 29 this year.

Emir Kusturica is one of the many shining gems in Central and Eastern Europe film industry, who are waiting for the world's more exploration and attention.

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Thanks go to IMDb-ian rijecka_sirena (USA) for the rectifications (dd 30 August 2006) on my commentary (dd 22 April 2004) for the following:

1. The Zolj is a Bosnian Muslim family so there is a circumcision.

2. The neighbor is Bosnian Serbian family.

3. Ankica is Bosnian Croatian (mostly Roman Catholics).

(Acknowledged on 1 January 2007)

I was very impressed with When Father was Away on Business; it is more coherent and moving than Black Cat, White cat, which I saw last week. The family structure is very well evoked, with three generations living in the house. The grandfather just wants to be left out of politics--for him Hitler and Stalin are pretty much the same. Mesa and Sena, the couple doomed to be separated for two years, are up to their ears in party machinations. Zijo, the brother in law, has sent Mesa to the mines for re-education, because his soon-to-be wife Ankica denounced the feckless Mesa when he wouldn't divorce Sena to marry her. In a totalitarian state, a lot depends on not annoying your relatives.

Miki Manojlovic is great as Mesa; he reminds me of Raimu occasionally. The wedding scene, when he effects a reconciliation with Zijo, is very poignant. Slobodan Aligrudic plays Cekic, the party boss who oversees Mesa's rehabilitation and finally sends him home to Sarajevo: he is affable (always wants to share a drink, play chess and so on) but the brutality is always close to the surface. Little Malik, the boy who tries to make sense of what the adults are doing, communicates a lot of joy and sorrow.

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...