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Kolya (Czech: Kolja) is a 1996 Czech drama film 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.[3] Kolya earned critical acclaim and won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film.[4]
The film begins in 1988 as 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 Prague crematorium. He has lost his previous job at the Czech Philharmonic, 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. The woman then uses her new citizenship to emigrate to West Germany, where her boyfriend lives.
Due to a concurrence of circumstances, she has to leave behind her 5-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.
Bachelor Louka ends up fathering a child with his girlfriend - perhaps a replacement for lost Kolya - and regains his position as a virtuoso with the philharmonic orchestra.
The film gained positive reviews.[5] [6] [7] [8]
The film was successful on limited release.[9]
Academy Award, La Strada, Academy Awards, Rome, Nino Rota
Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, Academy Awards, Vittorio De Sica, Akira Kurosawa
Fårö, Federico Fellini, Cries and Whispers, Fanny and Alexander, Through a Glass Darkly (film)
Federico Fellini, Alberto Sordi, Alessandro Blasetti, Cannes Film Festival, Giuseppe Tornatore
Czech Republic, Ř, Slavic languages, European Union, Slovakia
Jan Svěrák, Television, Czech Republic, Jan Hřebejk, Petr Zelenka
Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Pedro Almodóvar, Akira Kurosawa, François Truffaut
Live Action, Warner Bros., Comedy film, Paramount Pictures, Crime fiction
Jan Svěrák, Zdeněk Svěrák, Czech Republic, Comedy, Prague