Monday, March 26, 2018
450 - Kolya, Czech Republic, 1996. Dir. Jan Sverak.
The LORD is my shepherd.
I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
He leadeth me beside the still--[Yelp!]
Still waters.
He restoreth my soul.
The soprano is singing. The cellist is toying with her. From behind. He runs his bow between her legs. Up her skirt.
Thy rod and thy staff . . .
She jumps.
Louka has a naughty streak. He likes women. Flirts with them. Chases them. Charms them. He is a pledged bachelor. A settled stag.
The seducing musician. Libretto libertine. Player player.
Or as she puts it,
Pig! Grow up, can't you?
Prague 1988
Soviet troops crawl like locusts.
His mother says so.
Louka loses his job with the symphony. Not for his behavior but for the way he filled out a form. He did not bow to the bureaucracy. Answered the questions playfully. Did not take their Seriousness seriously.
So he now plays funerals. At the cemetery. And struggles to make ends meet. He needs a new car. His mother needs new gutters. He finds a pretty piece of costume jewelry in her gutter while working on it.
His buddy offers him a deal. Marry my niece. She is Russian and under threat of being sent back. If you marry her, she can stay. You will stay in separate rooms on your wedding night. We will pay you well.
Louka offers to stay in the same room on their wedding night.
No.
He agrees.
They marry.
She disappears.
Now that she can stay in Czechoslovakia, she goes to West Germany to be with her boyfriend.
Surprise.
Oh, well. It was a sham marriage anyway. Louka has his money. He buys his car. He goes about his business.
Until Kolya shows up.
Kolya is her son. She could not take him to West Germany. She left him with her mother. Her mother has died. You are the father of record. Here is your boy. Good luck.
Louka was right in the middle of a dalliance when this 5-year-old was thrust into his life. Talk about interruptus.
Kolya interrupts a lot of things in Louka's life. Louka has no clue how to care for a child. They speak different languages--Kolya Russian, Louka Czech. And some words which sound the same in each language mean different things. Things are not easy.
Louka puts Kolya in the bathtub to give himself some privacy.
He tries to maintain his lifestyle. But Kolya's presence just will not let him.
Louka must learn to care for Kolya. And learn to love along the way. The excursions between the old man and the boy provide some of the most joyful moments in the film.
The soprano gets her wish. The pig grows up. "Can't you?" Yes. He can.
Louka settles down with Klara. She agrees to help. She gets the piece of jewelry. She brings stability.
Communism collapses.
The Soviets withdraw.
The Velvet Revolution. Democracy. Capitalism. Freedom.
The mother gets her son back. Louka loses his.
He nearly loses him on the train platform when Kolya steps aboard as the doors close. But they reunite. In time for Louka to turn him over.
"Goodbye, Papa."
"Goodbye."
Louka gets his job back. He plays cello for the symphony. Klara stands in the audience. Her belly bulging with the fruits of committed devotion.
Kolya rides in an airplane. Above the clouds. Singing the first words he learned when he lived in Czechoslovakia.
The LORD is my shepherd.
I shall not want. . . .
* * * * *
Zdenek Sverak is a beloved Czech screenwriter and actor who has worked in the movies since 1968. He has written nearly 40 screenplays and acted in around 45 films. He wrote the screenplay for Kolya and starred as Louka. We promise he is not Sean Connery.
Jan Sverak is Zdenek Sverak's son. He has directed around 10 films. He directed his own father in Kolya. He had directed his father twice before, in The Elementary School (1991) and Accumulator 1 (1994). He directed him again in Empties (2007), Kooky (2010), Three Brothers (2014), and Barefoot (2017).
Kolya won the 1997 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film for the Czech Republic.
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