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Wednesday, 17 September 2014

Otac na Sluzbenom Putu


Also Known As:
When Father was Away on Business…
Year:
1985
Country:
Yugoslavia…
Predominant Genre:
Drama
Director:
Emir Kusturica…
Outstanding Performances:
None…
Premiss:
A careless remark about the newspaper cartoon is enough for Mesha to join many arrested unfortunates. His family is now forced to cope with the situation and wait for his release from prison.
Themes:
Alienation | Compassion | Destiny | Dialectical materialism | Emotional repression | Political Correctness | Self-expression | Totalitarianism
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:
Unknown ()…
Review Format:
DVD

[When Father was Away on Business]

A critique of the former Communistic ways of the former Yugoslavia from the point of view of a child. This boy sees all in the adults’ behaviour and does not always understand what he sees. Yet, its effect on him is profound, as he becomes a somnambulist in search of escape from Dialectical materialism.

For having published a satirical cartoon of Karl Marx as a Stalinist, the eponymous father is jailed in a work camp for two years. Yet, this is never clearly stated on any indictment as if to say it aloud would be to reveal that Stalin was not a true Marxist but the demagogue he actually was.

The issues explored are the effects on his family of this father’s absence and the fact that his relatives are accomplices to his incarceration. Such a paranoid polity makes genuine human relationships impossible and none work here too well.


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