The Shop on Main Street (1965)

We conclude Czechtember 2019 with a look at Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos’s The Shop on High Street. Also known as The Shop on High Street, the film was released in 1965 and written by Ladislav Grosman, based on his own story and book. The film tells the tale of Tono (Jozef Kroner), a carpenter who has been refused from working on his little town’s major building project. Instead, he’s assigned to be the Aryan face of a Jewish shop run currently by Mrs. Lautman (Ida Kamińska), a nearly deaf and partially blind widow.

Jonathan Owen (opens in a new tab) joins Mike to discuss this heart-wrenching story.