# When Father Was Away on Business
**When Father Was Away on Business** (*Otac na službenom putu*) is a 1985 Yugoslav drama film directed by [Emir Kusturica](https://www.edgepedia.org/emir-kusturica), in which a Sarajevo family copes with the father's political imprisonment by telling his young son that he is simply "away on business".[2](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/Papa_est_en_voyage_daffaires/3293) Written by Abdulah Sidran and set in Titoist Yugoslavia in the early 1950s, it was Kusturica's second feature film and won the [Palme d'Or](https://www.edgepedia.org/palme-dor) and the [Grand Prix](https://www.edgepedia.org/grand-prix-cannes-film-festival) de la Critique internationale at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival.[2](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/Papa_est_en_voyage_daffaires/3293)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | *Otac na službenom putu*; English title When Father Was Away on Business; Slovenian title *Oče na službenem potovanju*[3](https://bsf.si/en/movie/otac-na-sluzbenom-putu/) |
| Director / writer | Emir Kusturica; screenplay Abdulah Sidran[3](https://bsf.si/en/movie/otac-na-sluzbenom-putu/) |
| Release | Premiered 15 January 1985 in Yugoslavia[3](https://bsf.si/en/movie/otac-na-sluzbenom-putu/) |
| Awards | Palme d'Or and Grand Prix de la Critique internationale, Cannes 1985[2](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/Papa_est_en_voyage_daffaires/3293) |
| Running time | Reported as 125 minutes (Slovenian film database), 135 minutes (Kino Lorber), and 136 minutes (Treccani and Encyclopedia.com)[3](https://bsf.si/en/movie/otac-na-sluzbenom-putu/) • [4](https://kinolorber.com/film/whenfatherwasawayonbusiness) • [5](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/otac-na-sluzbenom-putu_%28Enciclopedia-del-Cinema%29/) |
| Production | Forum/Sarajevo Film, producer Mirza Pašić; the Slovenian database also credits Sutjeska film, Kinema, Union Film, and RO Forum OOUR[6](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/otac-na-sluzbenom-putu) • [3](https://bsf.si/en/movie/otac-na-sluzbenom-putu/) |
| Technical | Color, 35mm negative, mono sound; languages Serbo-Croatian and Hungarian[3](https://bsf.si/en/movie/otac-na-sluzbenom-putu/) • [6](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/otac-na-sluzbenom-putu) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The story is set in the early 1950s, after Tito's break with Stalin, when Stalinist methods still persisted in the day-to-day management of the Yugoslav party.[5](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/otac-na-sluzbenom-putu_%28Enciclopedia-del-Cinema%29/) Meša (Miki Manojlović), a minor party official with a wife, Sena (Mirjana Karanović), and two sons, the bespectacled Mirza and the pudgy younger Malik, refuses his demanding lover Anitza's ([Mira Furlan](https://www.edgepedia.org/mira-furlan)) request that he divorce his wife, and she denounces him to his brother-in-law Zijo, a party functionary.[5](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/otac-na-sluzbenom-putu_%28Enciclopedia-del-Cinema%29/) Meša is deported for this careless remark, made on the denunciation of a jealous woman, and sent to a labor camp or the mines.[2](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/Papa_est_en_voyage_daffaires/3293) • [4](https://kinolorber.com/film/whenfatherwasawayonbusiness)
The family arranges itself around the situation: the children are supposed to believe their father is "away on business", a euphemism that, according to the Washington Post's 1985 review, had become part of the language because political imprisonment was so common in postwar [Yugoslavia](https://www.edgepedia.org/yugoslavia).[2](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/Papa_est_en_voyage_daffaires/3293) • [7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1985/11/01/when-father-was-away-on-buisness/71be97f3-3813-4406-8d94-c9f4c2fe4b9f) The story is told chiefly through the eyes of Malik, about six years old, who suffers from sleepwalking.[2](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/Papa_est_en_voyage_daffaires/3293) The film's episodes show Malik experiencing his first love, sending his soccer ball flying into a wedding cake, and going blank while delivering a speech to a party official on [May Day](https://www.edgepedia.org/may-day), a blunder that could cost his newly freed father his liberty.[7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1985/11/01/when-father-was-away-on-buisness/71be97f3-3813-4406-8d94-c9f4c2fe4b9f)
## Cast and crew
The credited cast includes Moreno D'E Bartolli as Malik, Miki Manojlović as Meša (Mehmed/Mesa Zolj), Mirjana Karanović as Senija (Sena), Mustafa Nadarević as Zijo, Mira Furlan as Anitza, Predrag Laković as Franjo, Pavle Vuisić as the grandfather Muzafer Zulfikarpasić, Slobodan Aligrudić as Ostoja Cekić, Eva Ras as Ilonka, Aleksandar Dorčev as Dr. Ljahov, Davor Dujmović as Mirza, and Amer Kapetanović as Joza, Malik's friend.[5](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/otac-na-sluzbenom-putu_%28Enciclopedia-del-Cinema%29/) • [3](https://bsf.si/en/movie/otac-na-sluzbenom-putu/)
Behind the camera, Vilko Filač was director of photography, Andrija Zafranović edited, Predrag Lukovac designed the production, Divna Jovanović designed the costumes, and Zoran Simjanović composed the music.[3](https://bsf.si/en/movie/otac-na-sluzbenom-putu/) • [6](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/otac-na-sluzbenom-putu) The film was shot in Sarajevo on 35mm in color with mono sound.[6](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/otac-na-sluzbenom-putu)
## Production and reception
The film was produced by Forum/Sarajevo Film with Mirza Pašić as producer; the Slovenian film database additionally credits the production companies Sutjeska film, Kinema, Union Film, and RO Forum OOUR.[6](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/otac-na-sluzbenom-putu) • [3](https://bsf.si/en/movie/otac-na-sluzbenom-putu/) It premiered in Yugoslavia on 15 January 1985.[3](https://bsf.si/en/movie/otac-na-sluzbenom-putu/)
At Cannes in May 1985, [Miloš Forman](https://www.edgepedia.org/milos-forman) announced that the film had won the Palme d'Or; Kusturica himself was in Sarajevo at the time, having hurried home, apparently because he had promised a friend to help fix his heating boiler.[5](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/otac-na-sluzbenom-putu_%28Enciclopedia-del-Cinema%29/) The festival also awarded the film the Grand Prix de la Critique internationale.[2](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/Papa_est_en_voyage_daffaires/3293) Ten years later Kusturica won the Palme d'Or a second time with *[Underground](https://www.edgepedia.org/underground-1995-film)*.[5](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/otac-na-sluzbenom-putu_%28Enciclopedia-del-Cinema%29/)
Critics received the film warmly. Time Magazine called it "a poignant exuberant story", and on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 100% Tomatometer score from 7 critics, with an audience rating of 91% from more than 2,500 ratings.[4](https://kinolorber.com/film/whenfatherwasawayonbusiness) • [8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/when_father_was_away_on_business) The Larousse film dictionary praised its human qualities and moving scenes while observing that the film plays on many registers at once, humor, oneirism, private drama, and History, without always finding the verve to carry them all.[2](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/Papa_est_en_voyage_daffaires/3293) The film has been periodically revived at Belgrade festivals, including special screenings at the 43rd FEST in 2015 and the 31st Festival of Auteur Film in 2025.[3](https://bsf.si/en/movie/otac-na-sluzbenom-putu/)
## A later film with the same English title
The English title was reused in 2024 for a Serbian short documentary, *Otac na službenom putu* (When Father Was Away on Business), an 18-minute drama directed, shot, and edited by Veljko Petrović and produced by the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, in which a brother and sister visit their father in Nice after seven years of not seeing him. It premiered on 3 December 2024 at the Japanese-Serbian Film Festival in Belgrade and is unrelated to Kusturica's feature.[1](https://www.fcs.rs/filmovi/otac-na-sluzbenom-putu/)
## References
1. [Otac na službenom putu – When Father Was Away on Business (2024 short documentary), Film Center Serbia](https://www.fcs.rs/filmovi/otac-na-sluzbenom-putu/)
2. [Papa est en voyage d'affaires (Otac na sluzbenom putu), Larousse Dictionnaire mondial des films](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/Papa_est_en_voyage_daffaires/3293)
3. [Otac na službenom putu (1985), Slovenian Film Database (BSF)](https://bsf.si/en/movie/otac-na-sluzbenom-putu/)
4. [When Father Was Away On Business, Kino Lorber Theatrical](https://kinolorber.com/film/whenfatherwasawayonbusiness)
5. [Otac na službenom putu, Enciclopedia del Cinema, Treccani](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/otac-na-sluzbenom-putu_%28Enciclopedia-del-Cinema%29/)
6. [Otac na Sluzbenom Putu, Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/otac-na-sluzbenom-putu)
7. ["When Father Was Away on Buisness", The Washington Post, 31 October 1985](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1985/11/01/when-father-was-away-on-buisness/71be97f3-3813-4406-8d94-c9f4c2fe4b9f)
8. [When Father Was Away on Business, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/when_father_was_away_on_business)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Coming-of-age films › Coming-of-age films released before 2000*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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