When Father Was Away on Business

7 yrs 136 minutes • 1985 • 7.7

It is the 19th century Yugoslavia and Tito have broken out of Stalin's iron grip. But the situation is tough. For Mesa, it's enough to laugh at the wrong thing or to not laugh at all at a caricature of Stalin to be taken away in a prison camp for three years. The family is left behind and now they must find a way to find the will to live on. "When Father Was Away on Business is a story about a time of rejection, balances and moral defeat, about people's ability to take the protection of power games and ideologies and to lose their humanity with it – but also about the ability to regain it", writes Maaret Koskinen in DN. The film won the Palm d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for Best foreign film at both the Oscars and Golden Globes.