Dir: Agnieszka Holland | Cast: Idan Weiss, Peter Kurth, Jenovefa Bokova | Biopic 2025 127’
As a biopic that highlights Kafta’s romance with Felice Bauer and offers a lively depiction of his novel The Penal Colony, along with other key moment’s of the Prague-born visionary writer’s life, Franz could never be accused of being confusing and intractable, unlike the adjective that takes his name. But if fails to lay bare the soul of its leading man. Above all this intriguing drama shows that Polish Great director Agnieska Holland has no intention of settling into a traditional style, or slowing down.
Starring Idan Weiss as Franz Kafka (1883-1924), it follows the author’s life from his early teens in his hometown of Prague to his premature death, in Vienna, 1924. It tackles low points in Kafka’s life: a fractious relationship with his authoritative factory-owner father Hermann (a furious Peter Kurth), who belittled his writing and wanted Franz to follow in his footsteps, and the tragic death of his two older brothers. Kafka comes across as a sensitive, earnest young man determined to soldier on with his creative ambitions until his early death, depicted in the film’s final scene.
Visually this is a stylish and classically mounted triumph suffused with period detail yet somehow timeless, a quality accentuated by a funky modern score from Polish band Trupa Trupa. The fractured narrative structure helps to keep things interesting; and we soon realise that, like many artists before him, Kafka would only gain recognition after his death.
With his delicate dark looks and pallid complexion German actor Idan Weiss is captivating as the main character, determined to follow a creative path, always polite but often obtuse and pedantic – as in the scene where he spars with a beggar who asks for a single Czech koruna: Kafka gives him a two koruna piece, demanding change for the coin.
In the end Kafka remains as enigmatic as ever with Holland and her writer Marek Epstein creating a memorable and engrossing impression of the Czech luminary and wisely deciding not even to try and unravel a mystery which remains intact for posterity. @Meredith Taylor
NOW IN FRENCH CINEMAS | CAIRO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2025