Main Cast: Zdenek Sverak, Andrei Khalimon, Libuse Safrankova, Ondrej Vetchý, Stella Zázvorková
Release Year: 1996
Country: CZ/FR/UK/CS
Run Time: 105 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
55-year-old Louka (Zdenek Sverak) is a gifted musician in Czechoslovakia who once made a good living playing in the State Symphony Orchestra. However, he has little use for the government, and after putting a playfully insulting statement on a government form, he's been banished from official music making. He ekes out a living by giving private lessons, painting gravestones with gold leaf, and performing at funerals. Louka also likes to chase younger women, a surprisingly number of whom are more than happy to be caught. However, when a friend suggests marriage to a stranger, Louka is unexpectedly willing to consider the matter. It seems that Broz (Ondrej Vetchy), a gravedigger and a good friend of Louka's, has a niece, Nadezda (Irena Livanova), with a young son who wants to stay in Czechoslovakia. However, she's a Russian citizen and lacks the proper papers. In order to stay, the young mother needs to marry a Czech citizen, and she and her aunt are willing to pay a "husband" for his troubles. Louka, hard up for cash and in need of a used car, grudgingly agrees to the arrangement and weds Nadezda. However, once she has her papers, Nadezda heads for West Germany to be with her boyfriend, and after her aunt unexpectedly dies, Louka finds himself in custody of his new "stepson," six-year-old Kolya (Andrei Khalimon). A confirmed bachelor, Louka knows next to nothing about taking care of a child, and he discovers that parenthood cramps his style with the ladies. However, Louka and Kolya soon become good friends, and Louka finds his outlook on life beginning to change, just as the "Velvet Revolution" sounds the call of a new era in Czechoslovakia. Kolya won both the Academy Award and the Golden Globe as Best Foreign Language Film of 1997. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Set during the late '80s when the Czech Republic saw the end to the Russian occupation, the Academy award-winning Kolya reflects this transitional period of political change through a tenderly personal story. Screenwriter and leading man Zdenek Sverak is handsome in a rough Sean Connery way, a fitting look for his middle-aged bachelor character, Louka. To add to the separation between the two, the lonely little boy Kolya (Andrei Khalimon) speaks only Russian, a language Louka refuses to learn to speak, yet the two develop a carefully honest kinship. Louka's independent routine is continually challenged by the political turmoil of the time, which is best demonstrated by his growing relationship with both Kolya and his helpful lady friend, Klara. His reluctance to change is transformed just as Czech citizens are getting adjusted to the end of Communism and accepting a new life. Directed by Sverak's own son, Jan, Kolya is a believably touching portrait of the unlikely friendship between an old swinger and a young boy. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
Cast
Zdenek Sverak - Frantisek Louka
Andrei Khalimon - Kolya
Libuse Safrankova - Klara
Ondrej Vetchý - Mr. Broz
Stella Zázvorková - Frantisek's Mother
Ladislav Smoljak - Houdek; Karel Hermanek; Irina Livanova - Nadezhda
Credit
Ernst Goldschmidt - Associate Producer, Sona Tichackova - Casting, Katrina Holla - Costume Designer, Jan Sverák - Director, Alois Fisarek - Editor, Andrej Soukup - Composer (Music Score), Andrej Soukup - Songwriter, Milos Kohout - Production Designer, Vladimir Smutny - Cinematographer, Eric Abraham - Producer, Jan Sverák - Producer, Zbynek Mikulik - Sound/Sound Designer, Zdenek Sverak - Screenwriter
Kolya (originally Kolja) is a 1996Czech filmdrama about a man whose life is reshaped in an unexpected way. The film was directed by Jan Svěrák and stars his father Zdeněk Svěrák who also wrote the script from a story by Pavel Taussig.
The film begins in 1988 while the Soviet bloc is beginning to disintegrate. František Louka, a middle-aged Czech man dedicated to bachelorhood and the pursuit of women, is a concert cellist struggling to eke out a living by playing funerals at the Praguecrematorium. He has lost his previous job at the philharmonic orchestra due to having been half-accidentally blacklisted as "politically unreliable" by the authorities. A friend offers him a chance to earn a great deal of money through a sham marriage to a Russian woman to enable her to stay in Czechoslovakia. However, the woman uses her Czechoslovak citizenship to emigrate and join her boyfriend in West Germany.
Due to a concurrence of circumstances she has to leave behind her Russian-speaking five-year-old son, Kolya, for the disgruntled Czech musician to look after. At first Louka and Kolya have communication difficulties, as they don't speak each other's languages and the many false friend words that exist in Czech and Russian add to the confusion. Gradually, though, a bond forms between Louka and Kolya. The child suffers from suspected Meningitis and has to be placed on a course of carefully monitored Antibiotics. Louka is threatened with imprisonment for his suspect marriage and the child may be placed in a Russian children's home. The Velvet Revolution intervenes though, and Kolya is reunited with his mother. Louka and Kolya say their goodbyes.
