The 38th edition of Finále Plzeň opens on 26 September with Franz by Agnieszka Holland

After its world premiere in Toronto and a stop in the main competition of the prestigious San Sebastián festival, audiences at Finále will also have the chance to see the story of Prague’s famous writer, Franz Kafka, from his youth to his premature death. It is Franz, directed by three-time Academy Award nominee Agnieszka Holland, that will open this year’s Festival on 26 September.

The film is inspired by the life, work, and imagination of Franz Kafka, a writer who was well ahead of his time in a fascinating way. A vegetarian, workaholic, introvert, outsider, lover in letters, and bureaucrat in a nightmare. Franz is filled with imagination, humour, pain, and the inner world of a man who, through his books, defined modern existential anxieties and, even a hundred years after his death, reflects our deepest fears and desires.

Director Agnieszka Holland pieces together a kaleidoscope of events from fragments, dreams, letters, and preserved stories. The result is a sensually intense portrait of a man who never stopped searching for himself - and in doing so, touched upon something essential in us all.

“In many ways, Franz Kafka resembles people of today’s generation. His fears, tics, anxieties, his relationship to his own body, to the future - all of this makes him very modern. He also preferred written communication over personal contact. I think he disliked anything final or definitive and always left things somewhat unfinished and open. There is so much about him that feels current and modern,” says the director. Producer Šárka Cimbalová adds: “Agnieszka decided to shoot the film in a way that faithfully captures Kafka’s personality, his work, and the era in which he lived. That’s why the film uses the languages spoken at the time - Czech and German. And that’s why Franz Kafka is portrayed by German actor, Idan Weiss.”

Milena Jesenská is played by Jenovéfa Boková, Kafka’s father by German actor Peter Kurth, his mother by Sandra Korzeniak, his uncle by Ivan Trojan, and Kafka’s alter ego by Josef Trojan. Other cast members include Jan Budař, Emma Smetana, Václav Jiráček, Karel Dobrý, Vladimír Javorský, Stanislav Majer, Anita Krausová, Michal Isteník, and Milan Šteindler. The screenplay for Franz was written by Marek Epstein in collaboration with Agnieszka Holland. Cinematography is by Tomasz Naumiuk (Mr. Jones; Green Border). The film was shot largely in the Czech Republic, with support from the Pilsen Region. Filming took place mainly in Prague, where Kafka spent most of his life, as well as in Germany, particularly in Berlin.