L. P. Hartley’s words about “past being a foreign country” explain difficulties of comprehension when it comes to mores and ways of life many years, decades or centuries ago. Those difficulties are even greater when it comes to the past of an actual foreign country, and even greater when it is the past of the foreign country that actually ceased to exist. That might explain relative obscurity and lack of proper understanding of When Father Was Away on Business, 1985 Yugoslav period drama directed by Emir Kusturica, best known for winning Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival, which was one of the shiniest moment in film history of the country that would violently collapse few years later.
The film deals with one of the critical periods in the history of Communist Yugoslavia. In 1948 Yugoslav Communist leader Tito has split with his former mentor Stalin and brought country out of Soviet Bloc, a decision that would eventually allow citizens to enjoy more freedom and prosperity in comparison with those remaining on the other side of Iron Curtain. However, that decision confused many members of the ruling Communist Party, many of them either die-hard Stalinists or on the fence whether to support new policy or not. Ironically, in order to preserve his regime and secure de-Stalinisation, Tito took extreme measures not that very different than those employed by Stalin. Anyone suspected of harbouring pro-Stalin sentiments was purged, persecuted by dreaded UDBA secret police and the most unfortunate sent to Goli Otok prison, institution not that different from gulags.
The actual plot of the film begins in Bosnian capital of Sarajevo in June 1950 where we are introduced to Malkoč family. Father Mehmed “Meša” Malkoč (played by Predrag Miki Manojlović) is minor official and Party member who spends a lot of time travelling on official business, while his wife Senija “Sena” (played by Mirjana Karanović) stays home with her elderly father Muzafer (played by Pavle Vuisić) and two sons – older Mirza (played by Davor Dujmović) and 6-year old Malik (played by Moreno Debartolli), the latter serving as film’s narrator. Meša’s long trips are perfect opportunity for womanising, including the affair with an attractive female athlete Ankica Vidmar (played by Mira Furlan) who insists on Meša divorcing his wife. Meša refuses and makes fatal mistake of expressing disagreement with anti-Stalin newspaper cartoon in Ankica’s presence. She soon afterwards becomes mistress of Zijo (played by Mustafa Nadarević), high ranking UDBA official and Meša’s brother-in-law. and informs about Meša’s transgression. Despite family ties, Zijo has no qualms about having Meša arrested, although he allows the arrest to be made in a way to allow Malik to believe that his father is “away on business” instead sent in prison. Sena and her children are forced to live for months without any word about Meša. First they receive a letter and then he is released from prison mine for a night. Finally, he gets conditional release but he and family are forced to relocate to provincial town of Zvornik, where Meša is to take part in building a hydroelectric plant as part of his “re-education”, supervised by local UDBA official Cekić (played by Slobodan Aligrudić). Malik, who became a sleepwalker, would there experience first love but also see how the prison strained relations in his family. In 1952 Meša is allowed to return to Sarajevo, where the entire extended family would reunite and try to reconcile at the wedding of their cousin Fahro (played by Emir Hadžihafizbegović).
While there were other episodes in history of post-WW2 Yugoslavia that paint Tito’s regime in negative light, few were as embarrassing as the treatment of those taking the wrong side in Tito-Stalin split. Many victims of repression were prominent Party members, WW2 heroes and some were even completely innocent, yet everyone was subjected to brutal and often barbaric treatment. Naturally, those events were suppressed in official histories in Yugoslavia until 1980s where the unflattering truth came to sprout from memoirs, literary works and, finally, feature films, including this one.
Written by famous Bosnian writer Abdulah Sidran and directed by Emir Kusturica as his second feature, When Father Was Away on Business depends on viewers having at least some familiarity with the period and place in question. Yet, the film doesn’t bother much with complicated politics. The events are depicted almost exclusively from the perspective of a little child, which makes dark situation of Malkoč family more bearable for the audience. Same goes for extensive use of dark humour. Especially ironic is the segment is in which Malkočes meet and befriend Dr. Liakhov (played by Aleksandar Dorčev), Tvornik physician who happens to be ethnic Russian, but whose background as White Russian emigrant who has nothing to do with Stalin’s regime inoculated him from state-sanctioned Russophobia. When Father Was Away on Business also wins audience by his humanity. All characters, even when they behave irresponsibly and cause misery to others, are given opportunity to see the error of their ways and repent (except, perhaps, in the case of Ankica, whose treatment in the film was subjected of intense criticism by feminists).
When Father Was Away on Business offer glimpse not only in 1950s, but also in now very distant past of 1980s Yugoslavia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The cast, just like the characters in the film, is multi-ethnic and multi-cultural, in many ways resembling the character of Sarajevo before apocalyptic 1990s war. Meša, despite being Communist and adopting Party’s atheist ideology, is proud to have his sons circumcised in accordance to Muslim (Bosniac) tradition. His Serb neighbours bury their family member (who also used to be atheist Communist) as Orthodox Christian. Ankica and Malkoč’s another neighbour Franjo (played by Predrag Laković) as ethnic Croats. Seeing all those characters finding or trying to find the way to settle their differences makes this film quite sad in light of horrors that happened few years later.
From strictly technical standpoint, When Father Was Away on Business is very good piece of film making, an achievement even more impressive in light of relatively limited resources at Kusturica’s disposal. The period is well-reconstructed and the pace is good, despite the film at times looking little bit overlong. Kusturica’s style clearly leaves mark of Fellini’s influence, although he mostly avoids surrealism characteristic of his latter work. The cast is superb, diverse both in age (Serbian veteran actor Pavle Vuisić is great in one of his latter roles) and background (child actor Moreno Debartolli, who left acting to pursue pastry chef career, came from half-Jewish family). Everyone plays their roles well, including Slobodan Aligrudić in the role of secret policeman who looks threatening towards Meša because he actually treats him as a friend for most of the time. One flaw of the film is the soundtrack which sometimes veers too much between conventional scores by Zoran Simjanović, Mexican songs that used to be popular in early 1950s Yugoslavia and, finally, traditional Bosnian folk music. Despite that, prestigious awards and Oscar nomination look quite justified for this film that gives insight in truly foreign country.
RATING: 8/10 (+++)
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