Jewish heroes in film adaptations by director Ján Kadár

Abstract

Director Ján Kadár (1918–1979) in his films portrayed national, cultural and social diversity not only as a generator of interpersonal conflicts, but often also as an inspiring environment. Kadár‘s fascination with the heterogeneous cultural environment is closely connected with his fate, a Jew growing up in a Hungarian-Slovak environment, whose life experience was significantly influenced by anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. The study aims to focus on the interpretation of character of Jewish heroes in Kadár‘s work with a focus on his three film adaptations – the Czech-Slovak film Obchod na korze [The Shop on Main Street] (1965) based on Ladislav Grosman, the American film Angel Levine (1970) based on a short story by Bernard Malamud and the Canadian film Lies my Father Told Me, which was based on a short story by Ted Allan. In addition to comparison of the mentioned film adaptations with literary works, the study will also focus on Kadár‘s legacy for contemporary filmmaking and contemporary film audiences.