When Father Was Away on Business (Otac na službenom putu), 1985 is a film by Bosnian director Emir Kusturica. The screenplay was written by Abdulah Sidran.
Set in post-World War II Bosnia, during the Informbiro period, the film is a story of a young boy whose father has been suspected of working for Cominform and sent to a labor camp for a careless remark about a political newspaper cartoon. The story is from the perspective of the boy, Malik, who is led to believe that his father is on a business trip.
The story strikingly resembles those from the epoch of Stalinism in the Soviet Union.
The film unexpectedly won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival (1985) and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
The cast includes Mira Furlan, better known outside the former Yugoslavia for her role in the 1990s American television series Babylon 5.
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