Mira Furlan in When Father Was Away on Business (1985)

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Kids being raised in the criminal classes or among political malcontents face extended periods of time When Father Was Away on Business (1985). This euphemistic title is intended to denote a length of years when, for whatever reason, the male head of the family was confined to a house of detention. The place is Yugoslavia. The time in 1948. Iron man Tito has recently sheered away from Russia’s Stalin. Intrigue is rife, and institutionalized paranoia seeps down to the level of shops and back streets. Make a little joke, and security police arrive to take the man away. Still, the world is a place of wonder and discovery to the eyes of a child, living in the magic of imagination and hope. The adults have so much to learn from the example of their offspring.