When Father Was Away on Business is an unusually quiet film from the eccentric modern genius of cinema, Bosnian Emir Kusarica. It is set in Yugoslavia in the 1950s, a time of deep political turmoil-President Tito broke away from Stalin, and the tragic repercussions showed in the lives of common people.
The story, as seen through the eyes of Malik, (Moreno de Bartolli), an adorable eight-year-old boy, is of a simple family of four and the terrible plight they suffer under Stalin’s reign. Mesa, Malik’s charismatic father (Miki Manojlovic), makes a casual remark to his mistress Ankika (Mira Furlan) about the excesses of the government he notices in a newspaper cartoon while on a business trip to Zagreb. On their return to Sarajevo, the mistress mentions the remark to Mesa’s brother-in-law Zijo (Mustafa Nadarevic), a party worker who is by now her lover. Zijo calls Mesa for an interrogation. Realising the fate awaiting him, Mesa arranges to turn himself in on the day of the Malik and his elder son Mirza’s circumcision. Telling his sons that he is going away on one of his usual business trips, but a little longer this time, he leaves to be taken away to a desolate labour camp.
The history of modern East-European cinema and literature under Soviet communism deals with this recurring theme of the search for a father. Mesa is moved to serve parole at a hydroelectric project in Zvornik where he calls his family to make a new beginning. He is a shrewd, unfaithful scoundrel of a man, who quickly finds a way to make a profit and “go whoring” in his new surroundings. After serving his full sentence, Mesa returns with his family to Sarajevo. In the end, at a family wedding party, the entire family meets again. Stalin’s brutal reign is over and Zijo is no more a powerful official. Repenting, he asks his sister for forgiveness. Mesa avenges him by savagely making love to Ankika in a barn while Malik watches through a window.
Kusturica’s characters are definitely flawed and that is what makes them and their tragedies believable. But the film is very different from his chaotic but supreme works like Underground, Black Cat White Cat and his 2005 film Life is a Miracle.
Shades of Kusturica are seen in several Indian films, even Anurag Kashyap pays tribute to him in Dev.D and Gulaal with his use of brass bands.
The DVD, brought out by Terra Films also has an engrossing interview with Kusturica, where he explains his film and the importance of working within one’s own cultural milieu. There is also a slideshow of sepia tinted images from the films.
