Well... how shall I put it? If you want some poetry about the human soul and there is no book available go and see Kolya. In a world voided of any human personality, needs, hopes only kindness can touch and heal. And who in this world can show all this better than a kid. Take your time and go for a stroll in the sunshine of humanity. I can only write five lines. I can only write five lines. I can only write five lines. I can only write five lines. I can only write five lines.I can only write five lines. I can only write five lines.I can only write five lines. I can only write five lines.I can only write five lines. I can only write five lines.

Franta Louka (Sean Connery) is a concert cellist in Soviet-occupied Czechoslovakia, a confirmed bachelor and a lady's man. Having lost his place in the state orchestra, he must make ends meet by playing at funerals and painting tombstones.Although I am by no means well-versed in Czech film, I have seen a few of the New Wave pieces and have been impressed. Here, we see a much more modern, realistic approach. If the characters spoke English, this could have passed for an independent 1990s American film. (Maybe it is just my bias, but I tend to think the 90s were the best decade for indie film, second to none except maybe the 1970s.) The Velvet Revolution or Gentle Revolution was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia. The period of upheaval and transition took place from November 17 to December 29, 1989. Do Americans know about this? No, because we are rather ignorant of European affairs (which may or may not be a bad thing). Setting the film in this time creates an interesting dynamic, because Czechoslovakia has a nice distinction of being between the Western world and the Russian world (yes, Russia is part of Europe, but only in the most literal sense).

This movie is simply great and deserved the award. Yes, it uses quite a lot of the "established machinery" of the romantic movie industry. Two strangers come together, and there will develop some sort of positive relationship, because at last we all humans. But this time the strangers are a mature Czech and a fragile Russian kid. Russian means one of those, that years before crossed the border with tanks. And stayed with their tanks. So Louka would rather like to keep a distance. But the plot doesn't allow him so. To me the movie is about historical understanding and forgiveness, described on the level of individual human relations. I haven't seen this kind of movies before.Well, may be I'm simply wrong.

From another user comment, I gather that this film is packed with humor and references that will only be apparent to those familiar with Czech language and history.Despite that, to me it was an eminently satisfying film.There are three inter-related, connecting narratives, all intensely interesting, that propel the film and our attention.One is that this largely captures the time just before the revolution against Soviet occupation. It delineates very well what it was like to live within an occupied state with foreign rules and prohibitions. Among them, the way some people do (or do not) ally themselves to the foreign presence and support it for their own profit as well as quickly give it up when that's no longer profitable. And a little of what it was like in the transition to greater freedom.Another narrative deals with the life and times of a bachelor professional musician, a cellist, who long ago had to decide between having a family OR being a serious professional musician. He chose the latter route. Since that did not require him to be celibate, he developed excellent seductive skills which were perhaps near the level of his musicianship. His caring for Kolja changes him.The third major narrative to develop is the experience of Kolja, the eponymous subject of the film. He is the child of a single mother, Russian, who is determined to emigrate across the Iron Curtain. As a Russian she cannot. BUT, if she marries a Czech, she can. Due to a realistic but complex series of events, Kolja cannot accompany her.The film deals with trying to accomplish that and its aftermaths and consequences.I thought "Kolja" did a good job of showing SOME of the pain that a child -- separated from biological father, biological mother, biological grandmother, etc. -- would feel and what reactions would occur. But I'm a retired PhD psychologist who worked with scores of children in circumstances somewhat analogous to Kolja's. MY experience is that children placed in Kolja's place would almost always have far more destructive, harder to handle, reactions than Kolja did in the movie. I think it's understandable that Kolja was presented as NOT having those so intensely. This movie would have been rated by me a "10" if only they could have accomplished that but -- to do that, an entirely different movie would have to have been made. But, as it is, it shows the power of a relationship to transform those in it, of his developing love for the child humanizing the musician.