SHOWTIMES: 7:00p - FRI 11/6 | 1:00p - SUN 11/8
Part of the WENDEKINO Film Festival - with an introduction by Dr. Martin Kagel, Germanic & Slavic Studies prior to Friday's 7:00p show.
WINNER: 1996 Academy Awards USA: Oscar Best Foreign Language Film
WINNER: 1996 Golden Globes USA: Best Foreign Language Film
Louka, a middle-aged Czech cellist is a skirt-chasing bachelor who enjoys a lifestyle free of responsibilities. When he finds himself strapped for cash, he agrees to a marriage of convenience. But after his new bride skips town, Louka is left to father her five-year-old Russian son, Kolya. Neither could be more unhappy with their predicament, especially since they don’t even speak the same language! It takes time and patience for the cultural barrier between this unlikely father-son duo to fall, but when it does, an unbreakable bond forms in its place.
official website
What makes KOLYA special is the way it paints the details. Like the films of the Czech New Wave in the late 1960s, it has a cheerful, irreverent humor, and an eye for the absurdities of human behavior. Consider Louka's old mother, who refuses to care for the child because she will not have a Russian in the house, and watch the scene where Russian army trucks stop outside her cottage and the kid hears his native language and runs out happily to talk to the soldiers.
KOLYA was written by its star, Zdenek Sverak, and directed by his son, Jan. It is a work of love, beautifully photographed by Vladimir Smutny in rich deep reds and browns, with steam rising from soup and the little boy looking wistfully at the pigeons on the other side of the tower window. It is said that American audiences are going to fewer foreign films these days. Missing a film like KOLYA, winner of a 1997 Golden Globe, would not be a price I would be willing to pay.
rogerebert
