The 58th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) will pay tribute to one of the Czech Republic’s most famous sons, Franz Kafka, with a retrospective of film adaptations of his work from some of the greatest names in cinema. To mark the centenary of Kafka’s death, the festival will screen a series of films directly adapted from, or inspired by, the literary master of angst.
The retrospective will include such classics as Martin Scorsese’s Kafkaesque New York dramedy “After Hours” (1985) and Federico Fellini’s surrealist masterpiece “The Trial” (1962). Steven Soderbergh’s psychological thriller “Kafka” (1991) and its 2021 re-edit, both starring Jeremy Irons as a set-upon insurance man and writer, will also be featured alongside lesser-known adaptations, including Jan Němec’s experimental “A Report on the Party and the Guests” (1966), a German TV movie version of Kafka’s famous short story.
Other highlights include Ousmane Sembene’s Senegalese feature “Black Girl” (1968), a powerful exploration of racism and colonialism, and Kôji Yamamura’s animated short “Franz Kafka’s A Country Doctor” (2007), a haunting and visually stunning adaptation of Kafka’s classic tale.
“For decades, Kafka’s oeuvre has functioned as a continuing provocation to filmmakers,” said Karlovy Vary artistic director Karel Och and festival consultant Lorenzo Esposito, co-curators of the retrospective. “It is as if he were slyly challenging them to attempt to capture as authentically and intensely as possible the elusive nature of his formulations, of his narratives, of the realities he has crafted and the feelings of apprehension he elicits, yet also of the comic situations he has created.”
The 58th KVIFF, which runs June 28–July 6, will present acclaimed casting director Francine Maisler (“The Godfather,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “Amadeus”) — in 2021 the recipient of the Academy Honorary Award — with a special prize for her life’s work, and honor Czech actor Ivan Trojan (“Dark Blue World,” “The Painted Bird”) with this year’s president’s award for outstanding contribution to Czech cinema. Karlovy Vary will unveil its full festival lineup in the coming weeks.
