Following lengthy pre-production arrangements that began in late 2023, work on the Franz Kafka biopic took off this month on location in Prague’s city centre in the Malá Strana and Old Town neighbourhoods near where the writer was born in 1883.
Written by Holland and Czech screenwriter Marek Epstein, the film, provisionally titled Franz, tells the story of one of the world’s most iconic writers as a “kaleidoscopic mosaic” from his birth in late-19th century Prague to his death in Berlin in 1924.
Kafka’s best-known book is The Trial, which tells the story of Josef K., a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, with the nature of his crime revealed neither to him nor to the reader.
According to Holland, merely juxtaposing Kafka's biography and works does not allow one to truly understand his figure.
Thus, the director aims to achieve this through a blend of facts, conjectures and imaginations contained within his letters and dreams.
According to casting information published in Variety, German-Jewish actor Idan Weiss is set to star in the title part, making his feature debut.
Filming in Prague is scheduled to run until late May, with Franz also slated for shooting on location in Germany.
The production is taking place just ahead of the centenary of Kafka’s death on June 3, 1924.
Events in Prague throughout 2024 are marking this event.
(mo/gs)
Source: IAR, The Prague Reporter