The young Franz Kafka (Idan Weiss) juggles his routine work for an insurance company, his father’s stifling expectations and his irrepressible urge to write. With the support of his friend and future publisher Max Brod, his first writings are published. Love, family and work constantly draw him back to ordinary life, whilst a completely different world takes shape in his mind.

Director Agnieszka Holland (Green Border, Charlatan) has not made a conventional biopic, but rather a kaleidoscopic and, at times, absurdist portrait of one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. She follows Kafka from the Prague of his youth to his early death, allowing reality, imagination and the themes from his work to constantly merge. In this way, a complex, searching and surprisingly contemporary human being emerges from behind the literary monument.

Franz had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and was selected as Poland’s entry for the Oscars.