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 timid carpenter is appointed “Aryan controller” of a Jewish widow’s button shop and discovers that ordinary self-interest cannot remain separate from persecution.
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.
Open the note ↓
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
Credits & versions
- Cast
- Ida Kaminská — Rozália Lautmannová · Jozef Kroner — Tono Brtko · František Zvarík — Marcus Kikoťský · Hana Slivková — Evelína Brtková
- Screenplay
- Ladislav Grosman · Ján Kadár · Elmar Klos
Version map
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