Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka

Birth : 1883-07-03, Prague, Czechoslovakia

Death : 1924-06-03

History

Franz Kafka was a German-speaking Jewish novelist and short story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work, which fuses elements of realism and the fantastic, typically features isolated protagonists faced by bizarre or surrealistic predicaments and incomprehensible social-bureaucratic powers, and has been interpreted as exploring themes of alienation, existential anxiety, guilt, and absurdity.

Profile

Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka

Movies

The Metamorphosis
Story
As Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning from unsettling dreams, he finds himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin…
The Damned Yard
Writer
In an ominous Lisbon courtyard where the last executioner of the kingdom once lived, an accident is waiting to happen. After a patient game of who's observing who, four characters will collide with dire consequences. Inspired by the novel The Damned Yard by Nobel Prize-winning Bosnian writer Ivo Andrić, this is a masterclass in slow cinema, a pure 16mm cinematic pleasure by André Gil Mata.
The Burrow
Writer
Being the story of a critter and his "perfect" burrow. A stop-motion animation by Forrest Rice. Based on the original story by Franz Kafka.
In Our Synagogue
Story
A boy tries to find out what happened in the old local synagogue. Obsessed, he is chasing something he never saw and does not pay any attention to what is happening around him. Inspired by Franz Kafkas unfinished novel.
The Trial
Original Story
Franz Kafka’s novel moved to today’s Japan
Mr Rotpeter
Story
The curious adventure of Mr Rotpeter, a monkey turned into a man. Starting from Kafka's novel 'A Report to an Academy', Antonietta De Lillo's movie sets Mr Rotpeter's adventure in a nowadays Naples. Its peculiar storytelling flows between a faraway past and our recent reality. Mr Rotpeter's interest is strongly connected to human nature, society, politics, inner behaviours and emotions. Antonietta De Lillo's short movie will drag us into a very unique atmosphere, causing us a sense of disorientation and commotion.
The Judgment
Writer
Adapted from the short story by Franz Kafka, The Judgment is a psychological drama exploring themes of alienation, memory, and the lines between fantasy and reality. The film follows Georg Bendemann, a young merchant living 1900s Prague, who is struggling to maintain balance in an ever changing world. As his situation deteriorates due to complicated familial relationships, we are compelled to question the very nature of what we are seeing.
Métamorphose
Novel
Artist of Fasting
Original Story
A wordless man stages an unexplained hunger strike and the people surrounding him exploit his silence to further their own cause...
Die Verwandlung
Story
This short follows Gregor Samsa from Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis". It is set in the modern world and shows the events leading up to Kafka's metamorphosis. Gregor is a young man working for a textile company, who breaks down mentally after his job becomes overwhelming. He slowly loses his sanity and touch with reality.
The Great Wall
Short Story
‘The Great Wall has been completed at its most southerly point.’ So begins Kafka’s short story ‘At the Building of the Great Wall of China’, and so, at Europe’s heavily militarised south-eastern frontier, begins this film. In the shadow of its own narratives of freedom, Europe has been quietly building its own great wall. Like its famous Chinese precursor, this wall has been piecemeal in construction, diverse in form and dubious in utility. Gradually cohering across the continent, this system of enclosure and exclusion is urged upon a populace seemingly willing to accept its necessity and to contribute to its building.
K
Novel
A mongolian interpretation of Kafka's "The Castle".
The Burrow
Novel
KAFKA'S THE BURROW tells the story of a man's "metamorphosis" (as Kafka would put it) in a rapidly changing and increasingly isolated world. A man (Axel Prahl), who has seemingly achieved everything, ensconces himself in his burrow, a fortress-like apartment complex. But no matter how hard he tries to keep the outside world at a distance, he gets more and more entangled in his own web of fear and paranoia: those outside know he is there, they want him, they want his wealth, and they are inevitably going to get him ...
People in Places
Short Story
A fragmented view of contemporary Spain, drawing conclusions about the persistence of the human condition, strangeness, and the chaos within relationships.
Metamorphosis
Novel
Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, wakes up in his bed to find himself transformed into a large insect. After the metamorphosis, he becomes confined to his room and neglected by his family.
Schakale und Araber
Story
A Kafka dialogue is read by actors in Straub's own apartment in Paris.
The Toledo Report
Writer
A series of 15 prints inspired by "A Report for an Academy" by Franz Kafka, provokes this look at the life of the artist and social activist Francisco Toledo.
Franz Kafka's a Country Doctor
Writer
A hapless country doctor describes with breathless urgency a night-time summons to attend a young patient. Events soon take on a surreal aspect as "unearthly horses" transport him instantaneously to the bedside. The doctor, preoccupied with personal distractions and grievances against those he is employed to care for, fails to find what is revealed to be a vile, fatal wound. He is humiliated by the villagers, who are "always expecting the impossible from the doctor," and doomed to an endless return trip, losing everything.
The Man Who Waited
Story
Franz Kafka short film
Human Body
Story
An adaptation of Kafka's "A Country Doctor".
Metamorfosis
Novel
Short film release
Metamorphosis
Novel
Based on Kafka's story of the same name, "The Metamorphosis" tells the story of a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, who wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a gigantic insect.
Ein Brudermord
Story
The Hunger Artist
Story
Set in a city both past and present, on a deserted street where only the distant sounds of life blow by. The Hunger Artist stands alone, locked in his cage. Once famous and adored by the crowds, he now performs alone.
K
Story
Three stories. We see, but little is explained. In "The Married Couple," a salesman pays a call on an old customer who is with his wife in the upstairs bedroom of their ill adult son. Another salesman may beat him to the punch, but not before disorienting changes. A maid scrubs the floor. "In the Penal Colony": a man arrives at a penal colony where an officer demonstrates a bizarre apparatus, one that punches a message into the skin of a prisoner strapped beneath it. Who will be punished? In "Fratricide," a man is murdered at night by someone he knows well. A woman grieves.
K.aF.ka - Fragment
Original Story
An experimental study about the love between Franz Kafka and his adored Felice based on their correspondence.
Les animals
Author
The Castle
Novel
Michael Haneke's adaptation of Franz Kafka's unfinished novel Das Schloss. K arrives in a remote village a stranger. In attempting to establish himself there, he enters the nightmarish world of the castle bureaucracy.
Metamorphosis: Beyond the Screen Door
Novel
In director Norith Soth's modern retelling of Franz Kafka's classic tale, young Tom Gregor wants nothing more than to support and serve his family -- a mission that falters when he's overcome by a mysterious illness. With his parents too old to work and his younger sister turning to prostitution, things go from bad to worse when Tom's abusive boss fires him -- but then continues to show up at his house -- and his health fails to improve.
Bättre Utan Hund
Writer
The Country Doctor
Novel
An animation based on a short story by Franz Kafka about a country doctor interrupted by an alarm clock on a quiet home evening. In a bomb-ravaged room are waiting a dying child and a group of black market traders playing cards.
The Chamber Stork
Short Story
The second part of the Kafka trilogy. In the evening, the fluffy bookmaker arrives at his home, in the elevator engine room, and finds an immense, humming egg on his table.
Amerika
Novel
Vladimír Michálek chose an unconventional adaptation of Franz Kafka's novel for his feature debut. Artistically reminiscent of the classic films of Karel Zeman, the director reinterpreted this dark story of a man vainly seeking a place in a rigidly ordered society by changing the desperate conclusion into a happy end. The film provided Czech comedian Jirí Lábus with a new kind of role: that of the despotic uncle of a main hero Karel Rossman (Martin Dejdar).
Josephine the Singer and the Mice People
Original Story
The mice people live in an enormous theatre, expectantly awaiting the ambiguous show by Josefina.
Procesas
Novel
Based on the novel of the same name by Franz Kafka.
The Castle
Novel
Closely based on Franz Kafka's book "Das Schloß", the movie shares the same action on a land surveyor who is called to a village to do a job that no one seems to have ordered. Once there, he takes up the struggle against bureaucracy emanating from the castle.
The Trial
Novel
Joseph K. awakes one morning, to find two strange men in his room, telling him he has been arrested. Joseph is not told what he is charged with, and despite being "arrested," is allowed to remain free and go to work. But despite the strange nature of his arrest, Joseph soon learns that his trial, however odd, is very real, and tries desperately to spare himself from the court's judgement.
The Metamorphosis of Franz Kafka
Novel
Free adaptation based on Kafka's "The Metamorphosis". The action is in Praga occupied by Germans, at home of a Jew family (maybe the Kafka's). Novel's room of Gregor Samsa is replaced by an enormous library.
Rider on a Bucket
Short Story
Happened in Prague on a cold February evening, 1917: the poor violinist's atrium runs out of coal and his dancing mouse becomes ill. The coal bucket is empty, and without sparing any effort, the faithful bucket rides its master through the air towards the home of the carbon trader...
Metamorphosis
Writer
TV film of Steven Berkoff's stage adaption of Kafka's famous story in which a young man, who is the sole financial supporter of his family, awakes one morning in the form of a giant dung beetle and thereby becomes a nuisance to his family, who must now learn to rely upon themselves.
The Castle
Novel
Based on Franz Kafka's famous novel, director Jaakko Pakkasvirta created this interpretation of the woebegone Josef K., who is trapped in an ever-increasing labyrinth of double talk and bureaucratic nonsense in his efforts to reach the castle. As Josef seeks to make an appointment to see the ruler Herr Klamm inside his inaccessible abode, he becomes enmeshed in abuse from lowly villagers and bureaucrats alike. His endless false starts toward the castle's enigmatic interior are partly offset by a few sexual encounters but nothing alleviates his role as a victim of forces beyond his control.
Class Relations
Novel
A young man, recently arrived in New York from Europe, becomes swept up in a series of events that are beyond his knowledge or control.
Une villa aux environs de New York
Novel
KARL, a young immigrant, lives with his uncle in New York. He jealously watches over the education of his nephew. A friend, Mr. PALLUNDER invites KARL to spend a night at his house. Despite strong opposition from his uncle, Karl agrees. Mr. PALLUNDER and Karl cross New York while metal workers' demonstrations take place (black and white archives: aerial views of New York, protesters and police charges, neon lights at night). Mr. PALLUNDER introduces his daughter CLARA who announces the unwanted visit of Mr. GREEN. When the meal is over, CLARA trains KARL and is provocative and provocative against the silly and fierce young man. He wants to return to his uncle's home, but Mr PALLUNDER finds excuses not to accompany him. Mr. GREEN asked him to come and join him at just midnight and say goodbye to CLARA. She begs him to play the piano.
A Hunger Artist
Story
Based on Kafka's 1922 short story about a hunger artist.
The Trial
Writer
An adaptation of Franz Kafka's "The Trial"
Novel
Essay film about Franz Kafka's novel "Amerika".
The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa
Story
An animation made of beach sand on a piece of glass - directed by Caroline Leaf. Based on Kafka's The Metamorphosis.
Förvandlingen
Novel
A Swedish adaptation of the Franz Kafka novella. Gregor Samsa, wakes one morning to find himself transformed into a large, monstrous beetle.
Metamorphosis
Novel
An adaptation of Franz Kafka's classic story about Gregor Samsa, a man who awakes and sees himself suddenly turned into a repulsive insect.
Az ítélet
Writer
The Penal Colony
Story
A foreign journalist arrives on a small Pacific island 200 miles off the coast of South America. Once a leper colony, the island was later transformed into a prison and then, under U.N. mandate, made into an independent republic. Yet despite democratic structures, the inhabitants--who speak a strange dialect composed of Spanish and English--still obey the old prison rules. After sending back detailed accounts of the torture and repression seen everywhere, the journalist realizes that she"s fallen into the trap created for her by the islanders: lacking natural resources, the island"s main export is news. The clearest anticipation of Ruiz"s later European work, The Penal Colony is a powerful document of the tensions and contradictions in Chile in the months before Allende"s electoral victory.
Amerika oder der Verschollene
Novel
The Castle
Novel
A man comes to a small village to begin his new job as an attendant at the nearby castle. But everybody in the village claims that he surely must be mistaken, there is no need for an attendant at the castle.
The Warden of the Tomb
Short Story
An nobleman question an aged grave warden, whose sickness seems to be due to the ghosts who haunt his workplace.
Le Procès
Novel
Josef K wakes up in the morning and finds the police in his room. They tell him that he is on trial but nobody tells him what he is accused of. In order to find out about the reason for this accusation and to protest his innocence, he tries to look behind the façade of the judicial system. But since this remains fruitless, there seems to be no chance for him to escape from this Kafkaesque nightmare.
Das Schloß
Writer
Prosessen
Novel
L'arresto
Novel
K (Metamorphosis)
Writer
Short adaptation based on Kafka's "Metamorphose"
A Daily Mix-up
Writer
A short film based on a story by Franz Kafka. Two men meet to resolve an issue, but are unable to do so due to a series of adverse circumstances.
America
Author
A story about growing up, making decisions, and the daily cruelty of the world, based on an unfinished novel by Franz Kafka. An older servant seduces Karl Rossmann in his family home. To avoid scandal, Karl’s parents send him to America, where he is thrown into the vortex of a strange and ruthless world. He begins an endless journey in search of his place in an unknown country.