'The Shop On Main Street'

First, I wanted to point out my new favorite person: Wiktor Gorka. He designed the film poster above in addition to countless other posters, film or no. He did some breathtaking work. I highly suggest you spend the next two hours taking a good, long look.

In the 1960s, under the iron fist of Communist Russia, Eastern European filmmakers tried to come to grips with World War II and the Nazis.

I don't know, but I would imagine there are several layers of doubt, shame, regret, anger and rage that floods the soul of the individual that lived in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Ukraine, Albania, Italy, Yugoslavia or wherever.

There's the shame of being conquered. The regret of watching your neighbors and friends shot or put in a train car, never to return. Anger in being thought of as a lesser group of people.

All of this boils into some kind of emotion. Like rage or regret.

The Shop on Main Street focuses on a fumbling, unambitious handyman, who is given the keys to a local store that sells sewing paraphernalia like buttons or thread by a family member who is a member of the Nazi-instituted police force.

The kicker is that the store is already owned by a beloved, elderly Jewish woman and our man's acquisition is part of the Aryanization of this small hamlet and based upon the woman's short timeline left on Earth.

The film -- as all were -- was funded by the Communist government. However, even they couldn't be so stupid to believe that The Shop on Main Street was just about Nazis and facsism, right?

Of all the films from this era and genre, this might be my favorite. I think the acting is far superior than that of its contemporaries and there's something endearing to our hero, Tono.