Elmar Klos

Began in documentary shorts and played a key administrative role in aiding the recovery and nationalization of Czech cinema after WWII. Klos met longtime collaborator Jan Kadar after the war at the Barrandov film studios and the two made their first film together, "Unos/The Hijacking," in 1952. Klos and Kadar, who generally wrote their films together but whose on-the-set responsibilities veered more toward administration and direction, respectively, would work together for almost two decades on eight films generally noted for their smooth craftsmanship, solid storytelling and impassioned social critiques. The pair got into trouble with state censors on several occasions, notably with "Tri prani/The Three Wishes" (1958), for which they were banned from filmmaking for two years for depicting housing shortages and "decadent" postwar cynicism. Klos' and Kadar's best known film internationally was the intensely powerful, Oscar-winning portrait of a man assigned to "guard" an elderly Jewish woman during WWII, "The Shop on Main Street" (1965). After Klos assisted Kadar with the screenplay and direction of the disturbing psychological tale "Adrift" (released 1971), Kadar subsequently worked in the US and Canada while Klos gave up filmmaking. After being forced to work as a construction engineer for a time, Klos taught at the prestigious FAMU film school at the Prague Academy of Arts and Music.