• Title:
• Who Was Kafka?

• Director:
• Richard Dindo

• German w/ English Subtitles

• Switzerland, 99 minutes

• Venue:
• Goethe-Institut Washington

• Purchase Tickets:
• Show 1  

We all know what is meant when something is called “Kafka-esque,” but it is much harder to say with certainty who the man was behind some of the greatest writing of the 20^th Century. Prolific and esteemed Swiss filmmaker Richard Dindo (Ernesto Che Guevara, the Bolivian Diary; Charlotte : Life or Theatre) brings his trademark reliance on primary sources to this fascinating documentary about Franz Kafka. Kafka’s story is narrated by actors reading from writings by several of his closest friends and loves including Max Brod, Milena Jesenska, Felice Bauer and Gustav Janouch. These recollections from those who knew and loved him, along with Kafka’s own writings, infuse a cohesive Jewish narrative into a biography that is widely known in its broad themes—alienated son, frustrated clerk, angst-ridden writer, Prague-born, assimilated Jew—but seldom felt in its intimate details as it is here. Dindo’s emphasis on Kafka’s intolerance of his father’s hypocritical Judaism, his frustration with the anti-Semitism of Prague and his ultimate attraction to modern Zionism highlight what was central to his character—even as he eludes ultimate definition.

CO-SPONSORED BY the Goethe-Institut Washington and the Embassy of Switzerland

Introduction: David Kaufmann, Associate Professor of English, George Mason University

• Purchase Tickets:
• Show 1