The winner of the 1965 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film returns in a glorious digital restoration which premiered at Karlovy Vary this year.

With Slovakia made a puppet fascist state during World War II, milquetoast carpenter Tono (Jozef Kroner) is ordered to participate in the “Aryanisation” of his small hometown. However, he comes to care for the stubborn, confused, old Jewish widow (the formidable Ida Kamińska) whose button shop he is forced to run.

This serio-comic masterpiece about the perils of conformism to body and soul remains as timely as ever and features one of Zdeněk Liška’s loveliest scores, while Juraj Herz, the focus of this year’s Melbourne Cinémathèque co-presentation, served as its Assistant Director.

CaSFFA is proud to screen The Shop on Main Street, courtesy of the National Film Archive in Prague, in partnership with the Jewish International Film Festival.