History Film / Kolya

* AdultFear: One sequence deals with Louka's panic after he gets separated from Kolya on the subway. The situation is very scary from the child's point of view.
** Also for Nadezhda. She seeks emigration for a better life, but she can't bring her son with her. So she leaves him temporarily with her aunt and seeks help from the red cross to reunite with him. The aunt unexpectedly dies and the child is left in the hands of complete strangers.

* LanguageBarrier: Louka is Czech and doesn't speak any foreign language. He marries a Russian woman in order for her to get Czechoslovak citizenship. She then emigrates to West Germany, and when her elderly aunt goes to hospital (and later dies), Louka has to take care of his wife's five-year-old son Kolya who only speaks Russian. The first weeks are very hard for both and very sad for Kolya. One of the scenes has Louka calling his mistress who teaches Russian to tell Kolya a fairy-tale over the phone.

* BittersweetEnding: The Velvet Revolution allows Kolya's mother to come back to Czechoslovakia and take him with her but he has to say goodbye to Louka who he started to regard as a parent. It also allows Louka to get his job with the symphonic orchestra back, and the last scene reveals that he and Klára might be together and that she is pregnant. On the other hand, in an aspect of the ending probably not obvious to foreign viewers, the appearance of the two policemen in the happy crowd scene towards the end may in fact introduce more of a bitter than hopeful note - they are not regular police but [[Main/SecretPolice the StB]], so there may well be more ominous reasons for their presence at the protest.

* YourCheatingHeart:
** Louka calls his mistress Zuzi looking for sex, only to say in disappointment, "He's at home?"
** Klára says "I almost got divorced for you."
** Kolya's mother has a boyfriend/lover in West Germany, but according to Brož, he's married

* ArentYouGoingToRavishMe: When Louka uses his bow to poke under Klara the singer's skirt during a performance, she smacks him with her music sheet and calls him a pig. But when they're doing another performance and he doesn't poke under her skirt, she keeps looking backwards expectantly. The movie cuts to a scene of the two of them in bed together.
* BittersweetEnding: The Velvet Revolution allows Kolya's mother to come back to Czechoslovakia and take him with her but he has to say goodbye to Louka who he started to regard as a parent. It also allows Louka to get his job back with the symphony, and the last scene reveals that he and Klara might be together and that she is pregnant.
* BystanderSyndrome: Nobody helps poor five-year-old Kolya when he's clearly lost in metro, wandering hopelessly from train to train, getting stuck in the door and being very scared on the escalator.
* CallBack: In one of the first scenes Louka is using his bow to poke under Klara's skirt during a gig. Later he makes the exact same gesture with his bow, but it's to stop Kolya from climbing too far over the edge of the balcony.
* TheCasanova: Louka has a little black book of lovers and girlfriends, he calls Zuzi the hot teacher, he beds Klara the hot singer, and he's about to bed the hot blonde cello student when Kolya interrupts.

* DoorstopBaby: By accident. But Louka finds himself suddenly and unexpectedly responsible for a five-year-old boy when his "wife" lights out for West Germany and her aunt, who's been looking after the boy, is killed in a car wreck.

* LanguageBarrier: Louka is Czech and doesn't speak any foreign language. He marries a Russian woman for her to get Czechoslovak citizenship. She then emigrates to West Germany, and when her elderly aunt goes to hospital (and later dies), Louka has to take care of his wife's five-year-old son Kolya who only speaks Russian. The first weeks are very hard for both and very sad for Kolya. One of the scenes has Louka calling his mistress who teaches Russian to tell Kolya a fairy-tale over the phone.

* MathematiciansAnswer: Klara wonders about the pigeons that always peck at Louka's window.

'''Klara''': Why are they sharpening their beaks?\\
'''Louka''': So they're sharp.\\
'''Klara''': You are an idiot!
* MaybeEverAfter: Klara is pregnant with Louka's child and she watches him play in concert. Maybe they're together.

* SilverFox: Despite being white-haired and 55 years old, Louka is pretty darn successful with the ladies. He's good-looking and charming, and simply has sex appeal.

** Louka calls his mistress Zuzi looking for sex, only to say in disappointment, "He's home?"
** Klara says "I almost got divorced for you."
** Kolya's mother has a boyfriend/lover in West Germany, but according to Broz, he's married

** Louka calls an old girlfriend Zuzi looking for sex, only to say in disappointment, "He's home?"

A friend approaches Louka with a scheme to make a tidy sum of money: engage in a fake marriage with a Russian single mother who wants to gain Czech citizenship. Louka does so, and gets a fat chunk of cash that allows him to buy a car. Unfortunately, this backfires on him when the Russian woman soon skips to West Germany to be with her real boyfriend, thus leaving Louka exposed to trouble with the police for engaging in a fake marriage. It backfires on him even more when the Russian woman's aunt is killed in a car wreck in Prague, leaving Louka, as the woman's husband, in charge of her five-year-old son Kolya. Suddenly being a father to a small boy transforms the formerly irresponsible bachelor's life.

* YourCheatingHeart: Louka's lovers are married women.
** He calls an old girlfriend Zuzi looking for sex, only to say in disappointment, "He's home?"

* FallenOnHardTimesJob: As Louka eventually explains, an offhand smartass remark to a bureaucrat got him fired from the orchestra. Now he cadges work playing at funerals and moonlights as a restorer of gravestones, and is in debt, which is why he agrees to the marriage scheme. Lampshaded when the Bad Cop interrogating Kolya threatens to get him fired from the orchestra and leave him playing funerals, and the Good Cop passes him a note saying "HE DOES FUNERALS ALREADY."

* AdultFear: One sequence deals with Louka's panic after he gets separated from Kolya on the subway.

* BittersweetEnding: The Velvet Revolution allows Kolya's mother to come back to Czechoslovakia and take him away. But it also allows Louka to get his job back with the symphony, and the last scene reveals that he and Klara are together and she is pregnant.

* ComfortingComforter: Louka tries to do this on their first night together but a scared and angry Kolya throws back the comforter. Later he doesn't, signifying how they've bonded.

* KavorkaMan: Despite being white-haired and 55 years old, Louka is pretty darn successful with the ladies. He has a little black book of girlfriends, he beds Klara the hot singer, and he was about to bed the hot blonde cello student when Kolya interrupted.
* LanguageBarrier: Louka is Czech and doesn't speak any foreign language. He marries a Russian woman for her to get Czechoslovak citizenship. She then emigrates to West Germany, and when her elderly aunt goes to hospital (and later dies), Louka has to take care of his wife five-year-old son Kolya who only speaks Russian. The first weeks are very hard for both and very sad for Kolya. One of the scenes has Louka calling his mistress who teaches Russian to tell Kolya a fairy-tale over the phone.

* PunchClockVillain: The two police who grill Louka about his CitizenshipMarriage scheme. Late in the movie, they're at an anti-Communist street rally along with thousands of others. They give Louka sheepish looks.

* YourCheatingHeart: Louka calls an old girlfriend Zuzi looking for sex, only to say in disappointment, "He's home?" Klara later says "I almost got divorced for you."

''Kolya'' is a 1996 film from the UsefulNotes/CzechRepublic, directed by Jan Sverak, written by and starring his father, Zdenek Sverak.

Frantisek Louka (Zdenek Sverak) is a 55-year-old professional cellist in Prague, Czechoslovakia in the last days of Communist rule. He used to work in the Czech Philharmonic, but after pissing off a Communist bureaucrat he finds himself blacklisted, reduced to freelance gigs playing at funerals, living a bachelor life that has a surprising amount of girlfriends.

A friend approaches Louka with a scheme to make a tidy sum of money: engage in a fake marriage with a Russian single mother who wants to gain Czech citizenship. Louka does so, and gets a fat chunk of cash that allows him to buy a car. Unfortunately this backfires on him when the Russian woman soon skips to West Germany to be with her real boyfriend, thus leaving Louka exposed to trouble with the police for engaging in a fake marriage. It backfires on him even more when the Russian woman's aunt is killed in a car wreck in Prague, leaving Louka, as the woman's husband, in charge of her five-year-old son Kolya. Suddenly being father to a small boy transforms the formerly irresponsible bachelor's life.

* LanguageBarrier: Louka is Czech and doesn't speak any foreign language. He marries a Russian woman for her to get Czechoslovak citizenship. She then emigrates to West Germany, and when her elderly aunt goes to hospital (and later dies), Louka has to take care of his wife five-year-old son Kolya who only speaks Russian. The first weeks are very hard for both and very sad for Kolya. One of the scene has Louka calling his mistress who teaches Russian to tell Kolya a fairy-tale over the phone.

* PunchClockVillain: The two police who grill Louka about his CitizenshipMarriage scheme. Late in the movie they're at a anti-Communist street rally along with thousands of others. They give Louka sheepish looks.

* PunchClockVillain: The two police who grill Kolya about his CitizenshipMarriage scheme. Late in the movie they're at a anti-Communist street rally along with thousands of others. They give Louka sheepish looks.

* FallenOnHardTimesJob: As Louka eventually explains, an offhand smartass remark to a bureaucrat got him fired from the orchestra. Now he cadges work playing at funerals and moonlights as a restorer of gravestones, and is in debt, which is why he agrees to the marriage scheme.