kolya is one of the richest films i've seen in some time . zdenek sverak plays a confirmed old bachelor ( who's likely to remain so ) , who finds his life as a czech cellist increasingly impacted by the five-year old boy that he's taking care of . though it ends rather abruptly-- and i'm whining , 'cause i wanted to spend more time with these characters-- the acting , writing , and production values are as high as , if not higher than , comparable american dramas . this father-and-son delight-- sverak also wrote the script , while his son , jan , directed-- won a golden globe for best foreign language film and , a couple days after i saw it , walked away an oscar . in czech and russian , with english subtitles .
