Agnieszka Holland’s *Franz* Reimagines Kafka for Modern Audiences

Agnieszka Holland’s *Franz* follows a young Franz Kafka (Idan Weiss) as he struggles against the drudgery of his insurance clerk job while channeling his restless imagination into stories that would only be celebrated after his death. The film interweaves Kafka’s personal relationships—his fiancée Felice (Carol Schuler), sister Ottla (Katharina Stark), and friend Max Brod (Sebastian Schwarz)—with contemporary shots of Prague’s Kafka-themed tourism, creating a portrait of a writer whose work was largely unknown in his lifetime and whose manuscripts were saved only because Brod ignored Kafka’s wish to destroy them.

With FRANZ, Agnieszka Holland creates a surreal biopic worthy of Kafka himself — Moviejawn

Holland abandons linear storytelling, using rapid editing that jumps back and forth through Kafka’s life and present-day Prague. The director employs open elevators, stark office spaces, and surreal “fourth-wall” moments—such as Kafka addressing the camera directly—to echo Kafka’s perception of bureaucratic environments as oppressive, Brutalist tombs. Scenes of Kafka wandering crowds, swimming amid selfie-taking tourists, and encountering his own double reinforce his alienation in a world that feels both familiar and uncanny. The film also juxtaposes Kafka’s bleak outlook—exemplified by his remark that a world of copies of himself might be better extinct—with modern commercializations of his name, from museums to burger joints.

With FRANZ, Agnieszka Holland creates a surreal biopic worthy of Kafka himself — Moviejawn

She described her research process as touring Prague’s Kafka sites and sifting through the “piles of books and biographies” to locate the man beneath the scholarly and pop-culture layers. Holland emphasized that a conventional biopic would not suit Kafka, prompting her collaboration with screenwriter Marek Epstein to craft an unconventional narrative that reflects the writer’s own resistance to straightforward interpretation.

With FRANZ, Agnieszka Holland creates a surreal biopic worthy of Kafka himself — Moviejawn

The *moviejawn* review praises Weiss’s “hypnotic eyes” and Holland’s bold visual style, comparing the film’s experimental framing to Julie Taymor’s *Frida*. However, the reviewer finds the frequent fourth-wall breaks uneven, suggesting that limiting direct-to-camera narration to Kafka alone might have been more effective. The critique also notes that some moments—such as a “Jim from *The Office*” look—push the self-reflexive device “one step too far,” while other scenes, like Ottla’s naturalistic garden sequence, succeed in grounding the film’s surrealism. Overall, the review concludes that Holland’s willingness to avoid “the easy or boring route” results in a visually striking, if occasionally over-stylized, portrait of Kafka.

With FRANZ, Agnieszka Holland creates a surreal biopic worthy of Kafka himself — Moviejawn