Franz

With a light touch and great playfulness, the festival’s honorary award recipient Agnieszka Holland sketches a poetic and visually striking portrait of Franz Kafka.

The ratio between the number of words Kafka himself wrote and those written about him has been estimated at one to ten million. In Franz we encounter him as a young insurance clerk in Prague, torn between his duties and his passion for literature, and follow him until his death at the age of 40. Holland, who herself grew up in former Czechoslovakia and has long drawn inspiration from Kafka, weaves scenes from his life together with visions, dreams and motifs from his writing. The result is a suggestive, cinematic and thoroughly kafkaesque experience.

• Pia Lundberg