The Shop on Main Street

The Shop on Main Street is set in a small Slovak town during the Second World War, under a regime that has allied itself with Nazi Germany. Antonin "Tono" Brtko is a carpenter who keeps his distance from the local fascist zealots, but his wife and her brother Markus, a local strongman, push him forward. Through an "Aryanization" program, Tono is given control of a modest button shop belonging to Rozalia Lautmannova, an elderly Jewish widow. Rozalia, hard of hearing, does not grasp the arrangement and takes him for a hired assistant. Their wary coexistence slowly grows into mutual affection, even as the town's antisemitic authorities prepare to round up its Jewish residents, leaving Tono to weigh his own comfort and safety against the old woman's life.

The film was directed by Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos, who also wrote the screenplay with Ladislav Grosman. It is the second feature credited to the pair in the facts, after A Little Shoe in 1935. Jozef Kroner carries the role of Tono, with Ida Kamińska as Rozalia, František Zvarík as Markus, Hana Slivková as Evelyna, Martin Hollý as Imro Kuchár and Elena Zvaríková-Pappová as Ruzena. It was produced by Filmové studio Barrandov in Czechoslovakia and runs 128 minutes.

The film drew a worldwide box office of about 1 million USD. On TMDB it holds 7.1/10 from 232 votes, while a critics' rating stands at 9/10 from 15 reviews, a wide gap between professional and general viewer response.