When Father was away on Business

Yugoslavia at the beginning of the 1950s: 6-year-old Malik lives with his parents Mehmed and Senija and his older brother in post-Stalinist Titoist Sarajevo, Bosnia. Mehmed works for the Ministry of Labor and often is away on business. Although he loves his wife, he has an affair with Ankica, who is also being courted by his brother-in-law. When his brother-in-law finds out about the affair, he denounces Mehmed politically. Mehmed is sentenced to forced labor in a coal mine, and Senija makes her sons believe that he has gone on a long business trip.