When Father Was Away on Business

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.