Slow at times, but overall touching story of a simple carpenter, Anton Brtko,
who, in the early days of WWII, is suddenly named the "Aryan manager" of a small
sewing supply shop ran by an elderly Jewish widow, Mrs. Lautmannova. Brtko
isn't too comfortable with the situation and when he tries to explain what's
happening to Mrs. Lautmannova she's so hard of hearing and just plain old that
she has no idea what he's talking about. Eventually she comes to believe
that he is her nephew there to help her run the store. As time goes by
Brtko keeps up the facade and their relationship grows...then the Nazi's come to
take away the Jews.
Although the story is sad, it's really not as sad as it could have been.
To begin with Brtko isn't that likeable of a guy and yeah, I really felt sorry
for Mrs. Lautmannova but she was so senile that she was pretty much
clueless. Also the Nazi's were assholes, of course, but they could have
easily been portrayed as much worse. Good film, with a promising story
premise, but it could have been told much more powerfully than it was.
Something in the back of my mind tells me that Mikhail Kalatozov would have made
an a much more satisfying film from this story. That's just my two
cents. It's still worth watching.
