Kolya ( Czech, 1996 )

Language - Czech

Starring - Andrey Khalimon, Zdenek Sverak 

Genre - Drama 

Director - Jan Sverak 

Country - Czech

Year - 1996

It is raining Czech films in recent times at FilmBulb (A Report on the Party and Guests & The Shop on the Main Street). Kolya, directed by Jan Sverak is a Czech film, starring his father Zdenek Sverak in the lead role as Louka.

Unlike the last movie introduction Summer Palace (Where, I thought will be political, but ended up being more of sexually romantic film), Kolya, presents the human relationship and the political thoughts in a fair share.

Plot

Louka (Zdenek Sverak), around 50’s, a bachelor and a former member of Prague Philharmonic cellist is struggling now to make his ends meet by playing in funerals. He gets a proposal from his friend to marry a rich Russian widow, Nadezhda. This marriage is a sham, so that she can settle down in Czech from Soviet Russia (Remember the period is end of the cold war), he’ll get good money in return.

The marriage happens and with the money, Louka is back to his normal life. But after few days, a boy (Kolya) is dropped in his doorsteps by the medical authorities. (I think by this time you can get the story). The rest of the story revolves around the two. Did the Louka-Kolya get along with each other? What happens to them in the end is the rest of the film.

My Take

After reading the plot you might feel that this will be melodramatic, but it is not. Without revealing much, I would say the film is about how a man’ character is changed when he meets a boy ( Child ).

Incidentally, there is a connection between the previous Czechoslovakian films introduced before. Kolya rightly falls right into the line of my previous films.

The Shop in the Main Street- Portrays the emergence of German troops in Czechoslovakia.

A Report on the party and guests- A satirical story of how the Soviet Russia saves Czechoslovakia from Germans, but later puts an iron grip on the Czechs.

Kolya – The Soviet iron grip is taken off.