Kolya
original movie poster
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.
Language	Czech, Slovak and Russian
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Kolya is a 1996 Czech film drama about a man whose life is reshaped in an unexpected way.

Synopsis

The action takes place during the last years of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia, at a time when the Soviet bloc begins 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 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 that remain partly unclear, she has to leave behind her Russian-speaking five-year-old son, Kolya, for the disgruntled Czech musician to look after. Gradually, a bond forms between Louka and Kolya.

Principal cast

Awards

• Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
• Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film

External links

• Kolya at the Internet Movie Database

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