Kolya

Jan Sverak’s 1996 feature from the Czech Republicscripted by his father, who plays the lead rolecharts the unlikely bonding between an aging bachelor cellist in Russian-occupied Prague and a six-year-old Russian boy he becomes saddled with after agreeing to a utilitarian marriage with the boy’s mother, who disappears. Not as sentimental as it might have been, and an enormous commercial success in eastern Europe, this is well crafted and touchinga solid piece of humanist realism, ably performed. In Czech with subtitles. 105 min. (JR) Read more