| Kolya | |
|---|---|
movie poster |
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| Directed by | Jan Svěrák |
| Produced by | Eric Abraham Jan Svěrák |
| Written by | Zdeněk Svěrák |
| Starring | Zdeněk Svěrák Andrei Chalimon Libuše Šafránková |
| Music by | Ondřej Soukup Bedřich Smetana |
| Cinematography | Vladimír Smutný |
| Editing by | Alois Fišárek |
| Distributed by | Space Films |
| Release date(s) | May, 1996 (premiere at Cannes) 15 May 1996 24 January 1997 3 April 1997 9 May 1997 |
| Running time | 105 min. |
| Country | Czech Republic |
| Language | Czech, Slovak and Russian |
| Budget | CZK 28 millions[1] (app. $1 million) |
| Box office | $7,730,711[2] |
Kolya (originally Kolja) is a 1996 Czech film drama 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.
Contents |
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 Prague crematorium. He has lost his previous job at the City of Prague 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.
| Role | Actor |
|---|---|
| Kolya | Andrei Chalimon |
| Louka | Zdeněk Svěrák |
| Klára | Libuše Šafránková |
| Mr. Brož | Ondřej Vetchý |
| Louka's mother | Stella Zázvorková |
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