Underplayed Gems

The Shop on Main Street (1965)

The Shop on Main Street poster
Original title
Obchod na korze
Directed by
Elmar Klos, Ján Kadár
Genre
drama film, war film
Country
Czechoslovakia
Runtime
2h 08m
Rated
16
Rating
7.1 of 10 from 229 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

A Slovak carpenter becomes the Aryan manager of a Jewish widow's button shop during World War II. He struggles with his conscience as Nazi influence tightens around them.

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What happens

The Shop on Main Street (Czech/Slovak: Obchod na korze; in the UK The Shop on the High Street) is a 1965 Czechoslovak film about the Aryanization program during World War II in the Slovak Republic. The film was written by Ladislav Grosman and directed by Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos. It was funded by the Czechoslovak central authorities, produced at the Barrandov Film Studio in Prague, and filmed with a Slovak cast on location in the town of Sabinov in north-eastern Slovakia and on the Barrandov sound stage. It stars Jozef Kroner as the Slovak carpenter Tóno Brtko and Polish actress Ida Kamińska as the Jewish widow Rozália Lautmannová. The film won the 1965 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and Kamińska was nominated one year later for Best Actress in a Leading Role, making her the first Polish actress to be nominated for an Oscar. It was entered into the 1965 Cannes Film Festival. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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