When Father Was Away on Business cover art

When Father Was Away on Business Details

1985 Certificate 15
  • Rated:
  • 70
  • from 574 members

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 .. Read more

Starring Moreno D E Bartolli, Miki Manojlovic, Mirjana Karanovic
Director Emir Kusturica
Genres Drama

Sign up When Father Was Away on Business DVD

Buy From: £5.43

loading loading...

When Father Was Away on Business cover art

When Father Was Away on Business

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".

Starring Moreno D E Bartolli, Miki Manojlovic, Mirjana Karanovic
Director Emir Kusturica
Studio ARTIFICIAL EYE FILM COMPANY LTD.
Certificate Certificate 15
Genres Drama
Language DVD: Serbo-Croatian
Subtitles DVD: English
Released DVD: 21 Aug 2006
Production year: 1985
Format DVD

  • Most helpful member's review of When Father Was Away on Business

    View all
  • 11 out of 11 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 4 stars [Highly rated reviewer]

    A Cannes winner

    Kusturica's breakthrough picture, and somewhat more restrained than his later work, perhaps because he's more distanced from the political turmoil he is describing. Most of his common concerns are already present and correct, though, with a family torn apart by conditions completely outside their control, and events which other directors would take immensely seriously, here given a broadly comic spin.

    The result is not quite confident enough to carry all the film's baggage, but it's highly recommended and huge fun.

      • Savage from London, England
      • Posted 01 Jan 2007 16:29

  • Most recent members' review of When Father Was Away on Business

    View all
  • 4 out of 4 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 2 stars [Highly rated reviewer]

    No funny business here

    Included with the extras on this one is an interview with director Emir Kusturica who is obviously very fond of this film and says that it’s his serious attempt to deal with the realities of life in the former Yugoslavia. I’ve watched other films of his, most notably Life is a Miracle and Underground, where the background to the films are just as tragic, but they are relieved by humour. This film, detailing the fate of an ordinary man sent off to an assortment of labour camps, for which “away on business” is a polite euphemism, isn’t, and I found it laboured and far too long. The acting was generally very good, the settings appropriate, but I did long for a bit of decent music and Kusturica’s usual mayhem.

      • barbi
      • Posted 20 Apr 2008 12:36

  • More like this

    View all
    Showing 1 to 4 of 20

    loading

Find cinemas


Rating breakdown

574 Member ratings
  • 100
60
  • 90
54
  • 80
131
  • 70
123
  • 60
96
  • 50
47
  • 40
21
  • 30
15
  • 20
22
  • 10
5

Related user collection

Buy from the LOVEFiLM shop

    • When Father Was Away on Business

    • When Father Was Away on Business
    • DVD: £5.43
      Free Delivery
    • RRP £19.79 (you save: 73%)
      • 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 ...