‘Franz‘ (2025), the Franz Kafka biopic that Agnieszka Holland directed and wrote (together with Marek Epstein), will disappoint many of you biographical film lovers. Those who expect a chronologically ordered narrative of Kafka’s life, experiences, loves and creations will have to look for or wait for another film. ‘Franz’ is a very unconventional film about a very unconventional writer. However, I believe that those who admire Kafka, one of the representative writers for the atmosphere of the 20th century, a writer who reflected in his works, but also in the way he lived his life, the anxieties of an Europe haunted by conflicts and wars, while at the same time being a prophet of the horrors that were yet to come, have more chances to understand, resonate and come away enriched from watching this film.
We understand from the first scenes that we are not witnessing a linear or realistic description of Franz Kafka’s life. Some of the scenes are dreamlike, the viewers have the feeling that they are witnessing the confessions of the young Franz Kafka on a psychoanalyst’s couch, recounting his childhood memories and especially the nightmares visualized with the tools of cinema. Between these episodes, pseudo-docu-drama sequences are interspersed. Characters from Kafka’s entourage – his lovers, Max Brod – the writer and friend who accompanied him in life and saved his manuscripts after his death, his sister – speak directly to the viewers through the camera and comment on or detail moments from his life. A third layer of the approach includes sequences from contemporary Prague, in which Kafka’s life is the subject of urban legends and the places where he lived have become tourist attractions paired with shops selling ‘memorabilia’ related to the writer. Later in the film, we will also get to a few selected episodes from Franz’s biography, somewhat closer to a regular documentary approach, but these are also filmed and amplified with grotesque details, suggesting the hero’s experiences and perspective.
The story takes place mostly in Prague, over the course of more than a century. The setting of the Golden City plays a significant role, from the city streets at the beginning of the century and the rooms of the homes of the German-speaking Jewish bourgeoisie to which the Kafka family belonged to, to the 21st century, where tourists can drink beer at the pub that Franz is said to have once frequented. The costumes and especially the hats are also particularly interesting and expressive, and I am not surprised that I have already come across articles dedicated to the fashion of the film ‘Franz’. Agnieszka Holland has already made several films in the Czech Republic, but in fact her connection with Czech (or Czechoslovakian) cinema dates back a long time, as she graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU), class of 1971. She chose Idan Weiss as the lead actor, practically a debutante, whose physiognomy, very suitable for the role, is terribly reminiscent of that of Adrien Brody in Polanski’s ‘The Pianist’. The suffering, the repressed memories, the obsessions, the fervor with which he reads his prose come across very well on the screen. I hope that the young German actor with Israeli roots will use this formidable launching pad to start a spectacular career. Another significant role is that of Franz’s father, a dominant, tyrannical, obsessive character both in the film and in the writer’s life. He is played by Peter Kurth, a solid German actor whom I saw in another Czech film a decade ago. Many of the episodes in the film, including details of the dialogue or visual metaphors are inspired by Kafka’s writings and connoisseurs will delight in recognizing them. ‘Franz‘ is like a sophisticated cubist painting. It requires effort to be watched, understood, appreciated. Franz Kafka would not have deserved a banal film.