When Father Was Away on Business
Saturday 25. 1. 2025.
10:00 – The Stanley Kubrick Theatre
Tito’s break-up with Stalin in 1948 marked the beginning of dangerous years for many hard-core Yugoslav communists. A remark about a newspaper cartoon puts Meša in prison and his family is forced to cope with the situation and await his release from prison. The film follows events from the perspective of Malik, Meša’s younger son, who believes his mother’s story that his father has gone away on business.
Director: Emir Kusturica
Screenplay: Abdulah Sidran
Director of Photography: Vilko Filač
Film Editing: Andrija Zafranović
Producer: Mirza Pašić
Cast: Moreno De Bartoli, Miki Manojlović, Mirjana Karanović, Mustafa Nadarević, Mira Furlan, Pavle Vuisić
Duration: 136’
Yugoslavia, 1985
About Director
Emir Kusturica
Emir Kusturica is a Serbian film director, musician, and writer. He studied film directing at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU), and his graduation film Guernica (1978) won the first prize at the student film festival in Karlovy Vary. His first feature film, Do You Remember Dolly Bell? (1981), earned him the Silver Lion in Venice, while his film When Father Was Away on Business (1985) won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award. Time of the Gypsies (1988) earned him the Best Director award at Cannes, while Arizona Dream (1993), his work in English, won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. Underground (1995), his allegorical take on Yugoslav history, won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, making Kusturica one of the few directors to win this prestigious award twice. He taught acting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo and film directing at Columbia University in New York. On Mećavnik Hill, he built the village of Drvengrad, which has been hosting the Kustendorf International Film and Music Festival since 2008.