Began his career after WWII making documentary shorts, then moved to Prague where he made one feature, Katya (1950), before teaming up with Elmar Klos in 1952. Despite wary Czech censors, the pair co-directed and co-wrote a number of socially oriented documentaries and features, achieving international recognition for their Oscar-winning film, The Shop on Main Street (1965). Adrift, begun in 1968 but interrupted by the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, proved on its release in 1971 to be one of the most haunting depictions of mental breakdown in modern cinema. After his partnership with Klos dissolved in 1969, Kadár tried his hand in the US and Canada with varying degrees of success.