Kolya
by Jan Sverák
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DVD details
Actor: Andrei Chalimon, Libuse Safránková, Ondrej Vetchý, Stella Zázvorková, Zdenek SverákDirector: Jan Sverák
Brand: Buena Vista Home Video
Writer: Zdenek Sverák
Producer: Jan Sverák
Producer: Eric Abraham
Producer: Ernst Goldschmidt
Producer: Jan Jíra
Producer: Jirí Jezek
Writer: Pavel Taussig
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Czech (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 105 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-07-02
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Miramax
DVD Reviews of Kolya
DVD Review: Not a cute movie about a cute kid
Summary: 4 Stars
I have read the Amazon reviews on Kolya and was subjected to the reviews in the Western press when this movie came out in 1996.
Most people thought it was a movie about an old bachelor whose heart melts when forced to care for a child foisted on him by a marriage scam gone awry.
Think again.
This is a profoundly pessimistic movie that uses the cute device of a child melting a curmudgeon's heart to slip by its point that the Slavs are a divided tribe. The last two thirds of the movie hammer home that Czechs detest and fear Russians. The movie takes place in the late 1980's but the Czech loathing of Russians persists to this day.
Russian soldiers no longer pace the streets of Prague. In their place mafiosi from Moscow, Bryansk, and Ekaterinburg, have made Prague the European centre of money laundering. The invasion of Russian money in the Czech Republic is as powerful and humiliating to Czechs as were those tanks that rolled in back in 1968.
The Czechs I have talked to look on Kolya with revulsion. The old man who takes in a young Russian boy will not wet too many Czech eyes. What is a westerner to make of this movie? Louka (the old bachelor) has a nice apartment in the Mala Strana section of Prague. Interior decorators will take note. Trabant enthusiasts get extended shots of the beloved Trabi doing the rounds of the Czech countryside. Afficionados of movies filmed with diminished lighting will appreciate the relentless chiaroscuro of the cinematographer. And some will get a kick from seeing an old degenerate seducing younger babes.
Viewers without such tastes and who do not know or care about Czech-Russian antagonisms will either see a movie that rambles, or will take the movie seriously and go away believing that Czechs are drunk on sex, mistrust of outsiders, and are willing to cut just about any kind of deal to preserve their creature comforts.
Strangely enough, I liked this movie and believe it to be a great movie. Great movies are like great boxers. They hit their audiences in many places, seemingly at the same time. Those with a glass chin will be knocked out by Kolya's sentimentality. Those with more resistance will feel the body-blows of Kolya's relentless social commentary. Those who like nicely filmed films will just sit back with a brew in hand and let themselves relax. Those who have lived in Prague, and know Czechs and Russians, will reel under this film's objective portrayal of life at the border where two great peoples rub up against each other.
Description of Kolya
KOLYA - DVD MovieWinner of the 1997 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, this charming Czech drama uses the backdrop of the Russian military occupation in Prague for its funny, sad, and ultimately delightful story of a 55-year-old man's friendship with a 5-year-old boy. It doesn't exactly start out as friendship: Louka is a cellist who lost his symphony job after writing a sarcastic remark on an official form, and although he's struggling financially he still enjoys the company of several young women who find him irresistibly sexy. The last thing he needs is a surrogate child, but that's what he gets when young Kolya is abandoned by his mother, a Russian woman Louka had agreed to marry so she could avoid being sent back to Russia. The mother runs off to her boyfriend in Germany, leaving Louka with a 5-year-old kid who only speaks Russian! As directed by Jan Sverák (whose father, Zdenek Sverák, plays Louka), this predicament offers a lovingly detailed account of how Louka and Kolya discover each other, and how their mutual awkwardness evolves into a heartwarming father-son relationship. While the Russian presence creates an atmosphere of suspicion and restriction, the deepening connection between Louka and Kolya turns this into an unforgettable film, beautifully photographed, sensitively performed, and directed with just the right combination of subtle sentiment and harsh reality. Its Oscar was definitely well deserved. --Jeff Shannon
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