"The Shop on Main Street" tells the story of Tony Brtko (Jozef Kroner), assigned as the Aryan supervisor of a small shop run by Rozalie Lautman (Ida Kaminska), a doddering old lady whose mind is mostly gone and lives in a fog, seemingly unaware that World War II is raging around her. Tony, no sympathizer to the Nazi cause, takes on the duties begrudgingly, but becomes increasingly more involved as he realizes what fate will gradually meet Rozalie. Things reach a shattering conclusion at the climax, as Tony is met by her frustrating oblivion to the danger she is in. Ida Kaminska has received most of the attention in regards to this film. Hollywood even recognized her with a Best Actress Academy Award nomination in 1966. But the standout for me was Jozef Kroner, playing a quiet, mostly lazy man who is forced against his will into the role of hero. Watching his performance is like watching a raw nerve. I had some slight problems with the director's obsession on comparing Tony to Christ (he's a carpenter, he repeatedly is shown having his feet bathed), but this is a minor complaint about a film that packs a tremendous emotional wallop. I defy anyone to forget the last painful, lingering image of the film (I won't give it away), that simultaneously comments on the world that is and laments the world that could be.

Grade: A

The last half hour of this film may well be the most emotionally intense examination of a personal moral crisis ever put on film.

The movie achieves that rarest feat of being able to portray one of the most horrendous experiences in human history without resorting to sensationalism or sentimentality.

The acting of Josef Kroner and Ida Kaminska is without peer and the musical score is quite simply haunting and adds immeasureably to the film's overall effectiveness.

Make every effort to see this true cinematic masterpiece.

In 1942, in a small town in Czechoslovakia, the poor carpenter Tony Brtko (Jozef Króner) is assigned "Aryanizator" of a small shop on the main street by his fascist brother-in-law Mark Kolkotsky (Frantisek Zvarík). His greedy wife Evelyn (Hana Slivková) is seduced with the promise of fortune, but Tony finds that the store owned by the deaf and senile seventy year-old widow Rozalie Lautmann (Ida Kaminska) is bankrupted and the old lady is financially supported by the Jewish community that promises a salary to him to help her. Tony befriends Ms, Lautmann and helps her in the store and repairs her furniture, and lures his wife with his salary. When the Jews are expelled from the town by the fascist, Tony decides to help the old lady.

"Obchod na Korze" is one of those movies that make you laugh and cry. The tragic-comic and heartbreaking story of a flawed Aryan man and a senile Jewish widow is very well developed and the viewer is able to understand the despair of the lead character absolutely powerless against the powers that be, in a village where everybody knows each other. His state of mind in the end with the whole situation associated to the booze drives him to his ultimate decision. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A Pequena Loja da Rua Principal" ("The Little Shop of the Main Street")