The cult film by Emir Kusturica, made in 1985 and based on a screenplay by Abdulah Sidran, tells the story of the boy Malik, through whose awareness and emotions the turbulent 1950s of his father unfold. His father, a clerk at the Ministry of Labor, is sent to prison as a result of a web of intrigues. He is one of the prisoners of that time whose political guilt was never proven—a victim of an era in which Yugoslavia, resisting Stalinist dogmas, found itself in a position to make mistakes.
For the boy, who witnesses many conflict-filled situations, his father is “on a business trip.” He will never discover the role his uncle played in his father’s arrest, nor will he learn that his aunt—the one who gave him the much-desired football—caused the misfortune that befell his family…
The film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe.
