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Drama

The Shop on Main Street

Obchod na korze

Year
1965
Length
125 minCriterion presentation Version sources ↓

A timid carpenter is appointed “Aryan controller” of a Jewish widow’s button shop and discovers that ordinary self-interest cannot remain separate from persecution.

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Language
Slovak
FunnyBleak Approachable · Moderate Drama
The Shop on Main Street — Buttons, thread and fabric fill an aged paper haberdashery.

Image: Monocurator · source · Original Monocurator artwork

What to expect

Kadár and Klos move from provincial comedy towards terror without changing the human scale. A misunderstanding inside one small shop exposes how bureaucracy, cowardice, familiarity, and violence allow fascism to become ordinary.

How to ease in

The early humour is deliberate, not a promise that the subject will remain light. Keep the widow’s limited hearing in mind: she and Tono may occupy the same shop while understanding entirely different dangers.

Heads-up

A quick, non-exhaustive note Includes Holocaust persecution, antisemitism, forced deportation, fascist violence, death, suicide, alcohol, and severe moral distress.
Momo's Note May contain spoilers Who is Momo? →
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The shop begins as a place where Tono imagines he can pretend. I feel the walls close as public violence enters through rumours, uniforms, and the terrible convenience of not explaining enough.

— Momo

Momo thinking about this film

Credits & versions

Credits
Cast
Ida Kaminská — Rozália Lautmannová · Jozef Kroner — Tono Brtko · František Zvarík — Marcus Kikoťský · Hana Slivková — Evelína Brtková

Version map

Criterion presentation 125 min 125 minutes is attached only to the named Criterion presentation. No unsupported cut, score, territory, frame rate, source element, or restoration detail is inferred. Source: The Criterion Collection — The Shop on Main Street Runtime reference · Checked 2026-08-21

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