First of all, I have to admit that I am a big fan of almost all movies directed by Kusturica. I have lived in former Yugoslavia for six years, so there is always more to a movie from Yugoslavia compared to an ordinary or let's say Hollywood-type-of-movie.There's something magical about this movie. And for me, it is difficult to say exactly what. All I can say is that it makes the movie special. The scenery is beautiful, the acting so vivid, that it looks natural. Maybe it can be a bit confusing if you do not know enough about time and place of the plot.I also liked that the movie does not depend too much on dialogues, there is no trash-talking at all. And although I like trash-talking very much, it would have spoiled this movie. The way the story is told is rather picturesque. Almost fairytale-like! Having said that, it is not that easy to understand the idea of the movie. But maybe that's because of me :-) Each time I watch the movie, I discover something new, that draws my attention. And I still have not reached the stage where I can say: OK, now I have seen enough. As it is I am looking forward to watching this movie again and hopefully again. There's not much more to say, really. In times when movies are almost only designed to be chewed and swallowed instantly, this one provides a real opportunity to dig deeply.

This is yet another film where I had some problem figuring out many plot elements and character relationships, where some of the blame might rest on having to rely on subtitles. I also do not know much of the complicated history of Bosnia, so that didn't help me to understand the context, either.It took me at least half the film to figure out all of the character relationships, and this is really a "slice of life" story--albeit set, in the 1950s, in what's apparently a confusing, changing, communist political landscape. But it's important to know each character's relation to other characters as well as a bit of their personal backgrounds and histories with each other--character development is of primary importance, but I'm not sure it was always fleshed-out as it needed to be.It also didn't help (as it never does in any film) that a few characters looked very similar, and at least one has a major change of appearance, and a major change back. For example, I never was completely clear on whether the woman on the train with the father at the beginning, with whom he was having an affair (he was quite the philanderer), was also the female pilot in the airshow, and also the gym teacher, who was also his brother-in-law's wife. And the reason that the father went away to some kind of prison work camp was never very clear to me either. Ostensibly it was because he made a remark about a cartoon in a newspaper, but that seems ridiculous (although maybe that's more realistic than I can imagine and is part of the point), and I kept thinking that the real reason was for the brother-in-law to get back at him for the affair with the brother-in-law's wife.In any event, despite my confusion, this is a fairly good film, with great performances. The family's youngest son is at times a narrator and is featured in a poignant subplot, but Otac na sluzbenom putu would have benefited by making him even more of the focus and point of view.

I was very impressed with When Father was Away on Business; it is more coherent and moving than Black Cat, White cat, which I saw last week. The family structure is very well evoked, with three generations living in the house. The grandfather just wants to be left out of politics--for him Hitler and Stalin are pretty much the same. Mesa and Sena, the couple doomed to be separated for two years, are up to their ears in party machinations. Zijo, the brother in law, has sent Mesa to the mines for re-education, because his soon-to-be wife Ankica denounced the feckless Mesa when he wouldn't divorce Sena to marry her. In a totalitarian state, a lot depends on not annoying your relatives.Miki Manojlovic is great as Mesa; he reminds me of Raimu occasionally. The wedding scene, when he effects a reconciliation with Zijo, is very poignant. Slobodan Aligrudic plays Cekic, the party boss who oversees Mesa's rehabilitation and finally sends him home to Sarajevo: he is affable (always wants to share a drink, play chess and so on) but the brutality is always close to the surface. Little Malik, the boy who tries to make sense of what the adults are doing, communicates a lot of joy and sorrow.

I was so happy to find this film, as movies about life behind the Iron Curtain are very few and far between here in the US. It was a very interesting slice of life in the former Yugoslavia and featured the story of a man who was sent away for "anti-Communist" remarks. The poor sap, it seems, made a very innocent and harmless comment and because of this he was sent away from his loving family for a couple years for re-education and forced labor. All of this was very interesting. The problem for me was that although you felt for his family, you had a hard time caring for the man because beneath it all he was a major jerk who spent much of the movie being repeatedly unfaithful to his very loving wife. This, unfortunately, served to really blunt the impact of the film. While it COULD be said this humanized the story and made it more complex, I really felt disappointed by this plot choice.