The Oscar-winning film Kolja premiered more than 28 years ago and still remains the second most visited Czech film in cinemas. Its screenwriter and representative of the main character, Zdeněk Svěrák, “revived” the character of Kolji again shortly after the start of Russia’s aggressive invasion of Ukraine. In cooperation with the Ministry of the Interior, he filmed a spot in which he writes a letter to the Russian boy Kolya from the film of the same name.
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“Russians steal suitcases and foreign lands”, little Kolya already knew that Video: Facebook/Zdeněk Svěrák
“Hello Kolja, if you remember, I told you about you Russians that you steal suitcases and foreign territory. And unfortunately it’s true,” says Zdeněk Svěrák in a video he posted on his Facebook on March 1, 2022. The spot, which included scenes from the original film as well as real footage from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, was seen by hundreds of thousands of people at the time, who also shared it on social networks.
Svěrák writes a letter to Koljo in the footage, in which he warns him that the Russians are shooting at peaceful towns and driving people from their homes. “Now a little boy like you is standing here outside our door, he arrived this morning from Ukraine with only his mother. Can we leave them there?” he asks.
The 1996 film Kolja by director Jan Svěrák, for which his father wrote the script, won the Oscar for best foreign language film and was released in 40 countries. To this day, the film is popular both in the Czech Republic and abroad. He is featured regularly, as well as tonight, that is on Tuesday, August 13, at 8:10 p.m., on the Czech Television program.
Also watch the trailer of the famous film:
Kolja premiered in the spring of 1996. | Video: Space Films
