When Father Was Away on Business (Otac na sluzbenom Putu 1985)
This feature is one of 5 best films coming from former Yugoslavia
Emir Kusturica’s second feature (following on from the wonderfully observed Do You Remember Dolly Bell?) opens in Sarajevo during the troubled years following Tito’s break with Stalin and the Soviet Cominform, from 1948 to 1952.
The title ''When Father Was Away on Business'' refers to a trip taken by the young hero's parent - not a business trip, but a journey to a communist work-correction camps . It also indicates the perspective from which the story is seen by young boy.
The title ''When Father Was Away on Business'' refers to a trip taken by the young hero's parent - not a business trip, but a journey to a communist work-correction camps . It also indicates the perspective from which the story is seen by young boy.
The background of the story is set in voice-over narrative by Mesa's six-year-old son Malik, whose best friend Joza's father was taken away by "men in leather coats" after proclaiming publicly "I'd rather have Russian shit than American cake!"
It is from young Malik's view that the story is primarily told. His understanding of the arrest of Joza's father is only that "it was something to do with Stalin."
It is from young Malik's view that the story is primarily told. His understanding of the arrest of Joza's father is only that "it was something to do with Stalin."
Malik’s father, Mesha, criticizes a cartoon in the party newspaper, and as punishment is sent to work correction camp.The fact that Mesha’s brother-in-law, a stern, bureaucratic Communist Party official, shares Mesha’s interest in the same young women only seals Mesha’s fate. As a result of his misdemeanor he is sent work in a mine, while the rest of his family is left to manage on its own (They will eventually later join Mesha in this work-correction camp in small eastern town in Bosnia).
Film follows the family through this crisis and then their return back to Sarajevo to some kind of normality again; it also captures some of Malik's formative experiences, including his first stirrings of love .
"When Father Was Away on Business" ("Otac na sluzbenom putu") is winner of the Golden Palm at 1985 Cannes Film Festival.
"When Father Was Away on Business" ("Otac na sluzbenom putu") is winner of the Golden Palm at 1985 Cannes Film Festival.
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Do You Remember Dolly Bell ? (1981)
Emir Kusturica's first film Do You Remember Dolly Bell? is a bittersweet comedy set in the former Yugoslavia during the 1960s. The film, which won the Golden Lion Prize at the 1981 Venice Film Festival, is both a coming of age story and a tribute to the city of Sarajevo, long before it was devastated by civil war. To the chagrin of his strict Communist father (Slobodan Aligrudic), sixteen-year old Dino (Slavo Stimac) is more into hypnosis and self-help mantras than Marxist ideology. He recites the phrase "Every day in every way I'm getting better and better" and sings in a new band mandated by the local Eastern European bureaucracy as they relax the Communist grip and allow some influence of Western culture.
Dino's family of six live in a cramped one-room house while they wait for state housing. The father drinks excessively and the family is poor. This is underscored when, during a visit to relatives, the youngest boy makes a point of saying how much he wishes he had a bicycle like the one he sees in the relative's home. Through Dino's relationship with Sonny, an unsavory pimp, he meets a cabaret singer and prostitute Dolly Bell (Ljiljana Blagojevic), named after a stripper in an Italian film they had seen recently at the Culture Club. Dolly is forced by Sonny to wait in the attic of Dino's home until he returns and Dino is a passive onlooker as a band of delinquent boys take their turn with her.
Dino's sweet innocence captivates the young girl, however, and the two form a bond that results in Dino's sexual initiation and first love affair. Dino has to cope with his father's illness, a lung cancer that has become life-threatening and their days together reveal a much mellower man who tells Dino he knew about the girl in the loft and no longer disapproves his using hypnosis and auto-suggestion. While Do you Remember Dolly Bell? lacks the polish and cinematic flair of Kusturica's later work, it is an honest and intelligent film that avoids sentimentality and provides compelling insight into what it meant to grow up in Eastern Europe during the sixties.
Dino's family of six live in a cramped one-room house while they wait for state housing. The father drinks excessively and the family is poor. This is underscored when, during a visit to relatives, the youngest boy makes a point of saying how much he wishes he had a bicycle like the one he sees in the relative's home. Through Dino's relationship with Sonny, an unsavory pimp, he meets a cabaret singer and prostitute Dolly Bell (Ljiljana Blagojevic), named after a stripper in an Italian film they had seen recently at the Culture Club. Dolly is forced by Sonny to wait in the attic of Dino's home until he returns and Dino is a passive onlooker as a band of delinquent boys take their turn with her.
Dino's sweet innocence captivates the young girl, however, and the two form a bond that results in Dino's sexual initiation and first love affair. Dino has to cope with his father's illness, a lung cancer that has become life-threatening and their days together reveal a much mellower man who tells Dino he knew about the girl in the loft and no longer disapproves his using hypnosis and auto-suggestion. While Do you Remember Dolly Bell? lacks the polish and cinematic flair of Kusturica's later work, it is an honest and intelligent film that avoids sentimentality and provides compelling insight into what it meant to grow up in Eastern Europe during the sixties.
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