Osar nominated Polish writer and director Agnieszka Holland discussed her new biographical film Franz, about author Franz Kafka, at the 59th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF).

She said the movie tries to uncover the “essence” of the novelist and explores themes that are still topical, including Kafka’s thoughts on dangers of totalitarianism.

The filmmaker unveiled the trailer for the movie, starring German actor Idan Weiss, before talking about the creative process of the film. The cast also includes Jenovéfa Boková, Peter Kurth, and Ivan Trojan.

Holland wrote the script for the co-production between the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, and France, with Marek Epstein (Charlatan), with Mike Downey serving as executive producer.

She suggested that Kafka’s “triple identity” spoke to her as a “half-Polish, half-Jewish [person]living in a strange antisemitic Communist country.” Holland also emphasized that Kafka was “practically forbidden in Czechoslovakia except for short periods” under the Communist regime.

After the fall of communism in what is now the Czech Republic, “in the 21st century, Kafka became the biggest public tourist attraction and the brand for the various souvenir gadgets,” the filmmaker argued.

What is the essence of Kafka?

The goal of Franz is to examine the question of “what is the essence of Kafka, and how much that essence has been buried underneath the popular culture.”

The themes in the film, such as living with patriarch, “the prison of the family,” the “impossibility to communicate” and Kafka’s “fear of close identity,” meaning his unwillingness to choose a single one of his various identities, are still current and topical. So is his “fatalism and pessimism about humanity” and “his vision of the dangers of the future of totalitarian society, which is reducing the individual to a non-important, negligible part.”

The star of the movie, Idan Weiss, discussed his portrayal: “He was in my body for a long time, and he came out.” The actor locked himself into his apartment in Hamburg for months and only went out when it got dark to get feeling of and for darkness.

What is a core Kafka quality? “Franz for me is sensitivity,” he shared.

Producer Downey highlighted Kafka’s “rock star status.”

Honoring the celebrated Czech writer with retrospective last year, the centenary of his death, KVIFF highlighted how filmmakers have been inspired to either adapt his works outright or make movies that are “Kafkaesque,” meaning that they are filled with the kind of angst, alienation and absurdity that made the novelist one of the most prominent figures in 20th century literature.

In 1991, indie poster child Steven Soderbergh made Kafka, a quasi and shallow mystery thriller from a screenplay by Lem Dobbs. Ostensibly a biopic based on the life of Franz Kafka, the film attempted to blur the lines between fact and fiction (most notably The Castle and The Trial) to little effect.

Its mega star ensemble, including Jeremy Irons in the title role, Theresa Russell, Ian Holm, Jeroen Krabbé, Joel Grey, Armin Mueller-Stahl, and Alec Guinness., was totally wasted in that misbegotten and rambling project.

Released after Soderbergh’s 1989 critically acclaimed debut, Sex, Lies, and Videotape (winner of Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Fest), Kafka was a sophomore jinx, the first of what would be Soderbergh’s series of low-budget box-office disappointments, grossing only $1 million against a sizable budget of $12 million.