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Franz: Becoming Kafka

Book Tickets

No upcoming sessions

Synopsis

Toggling between past and present, the latest from filmmaker Agnieszka Holland is a masterful tour de force portrait of legendary writer Franz Kafka, who remains celebrated worldwide for his books, short stories, fables, and aphorisms.

In Franz, we meet Kafka (played by Idan Weiss, who shines in his first major role) as a young man — a lawyer working in insurance — navigating his passion for literature while balancing the responsibilities of being a son and future husband in a conservative yet economically troubled society on the verge of World War I. Possessing talent for blending realism and fantasy as well as a penchant for savagely worded skewerings of bureaucracies and man — whether facing surreal predicaments or his own nature — Kafka’s world was compressed by a long battle with tuberculosis.

Swirling events from across the Czech writer's life into a prismatic study of his creative frustration and uncontrolled legacy, this ambitious film shuns convention and brilliantly surmounts the framework of a standard biopic.

German, Czech with English subtitles

Screening at Luna Leederville from May 21.

FESTIVALS & AWARDS

2025 Toronto International Film Festival | Official Selection
2026 European Film Awards | Nominee: European Actor, European Costume Designer, European Make-Up & Hair Artist

Opening Date

Thursday, May 21, 2026

Rating

MA15+

Length

127m

Genre

New Release

Reviews

Agnieszka Holland crafts an intimate, meta-cinematic portrait that questions legacy as much as it honors it... intellectually and emotionally resonant.

Algo Más Que Cine

Idan Weiss delivers an outstanding performance, capturing Kafka's physical and emotional essence. The result is a courageous and thought-provoking film.

Sensacine

★★★★ Playful biopic that rips up chronology and frequently tears down the fourth wall so that we’re never sure if we’re going to be the ones looking into the fishbowl of his life or the ones being inspected.

Eye for Film