Kolya

The film tells of a very cute five year old Russian boy called Kolya who is left in the care of a fifty five year old Czech musician, who has married the boy's mother.

The marriage was a scam organised to allow the Russian mother to leave Russia; a deal that netted the musician a good deal of money, but following the marriage Mum scoots into Canada to be with the man in whom she's really interested.

Our new Dad has been a confirmed and avid bachelor and has delighted in his many lady friends. Now he has to learn to live with a saddened, abandoned five year old; a situation destined to cause a radical change in life style. They become attached to one another.

Not all of the interest in Kolya lies in the relationship between the boy and his new Dad. The musician's trysts with women offer plenty of warm amusement in Kolya, especially when mixed with bouts of hiccups!

As well, his work playing the cello at funerals adds bittersweet comedy. It's the rough, holes in your socks, threadbare, Eastern European feel that is beautifully imagined. In common with most outstanding films, it's the details that provides the essence of pleasure for the audience.

Zdenek Sverak has an amiable, cultured way about him in Kolya which is ideal for the part of the musician. European films somehow leave a space for characters such as these.

The musician is a virtuoso cellist who was formerly a member of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, but who had been blacklisted years before for some reason by the communist government.

Kolya was set at about the time of the 1989 overthrow of the communists in then Czechoslovakia.

Kolya is attractively filmed and directed by Jan Sverak, the son of the script writer and leading actor Zdenek Sverak, and exhibits very slick production standards.

The pace is pleasantly and placidly measured, in keeping with the soft, careful attitude of both the musician and the boy, as their relationship develops. And Andrej Chalimon, the five year old is superb as Kolya.

The appearance of Andrej, carried on the shoulders of Zdenek Sverak, to be introduced to the glitterati at the Academy Awards as Kolya was memorable, and so is the film in which they starred.