JIFF25: The Glory of Life

Australian premiere 

In the summer of 1923, writer Franz Kafka was convalescing by the seaside at Graal-Müritz when he met Dora Diamant – the last love of his life. The two were like night and day – Kafka, a fragile 40-year-old man dying of tuberculosis and riddled with self-doubt over his writing, and Diamant, a lively and rebellious young woman dreaming of dancing on the stages of Berlin. But their cosmically fated connection lifted Kafka throughout the final year of his life despite his devastating illness. 

Based on the best-selling novel by Michael Kumpfmüller, The Glory of Life recounts the metamorphic romance between Kafka and Diamant that took them from the Baltic Sea to Weimar-era Berlin to Kafka’s final days in a sanitorium outside Vienna. Where many accounts of Kafka focus on his writings, this poetic and tender drama spotlights Kafka’s inner life, and the joy and acceptance he found with his beloved Dora. 

German with English subtitles