Agnieska Holland’s surreal biopic of the great Franz Kafka

In collaboration with Czech Center New York, the Polish Cultural Institute New York, EUNIC New York, and the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association, the German Film Office presents a screening of Franz, the imaginative new film by award-winning Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland.

A portrait of the artist as begrudging insurance lawyer, aloof lover, voluminous letter writer, and—of course—restless genius, Franz unfolds the crystalline inner life of Czech writer Franz Kafka. Bouncing between Kafka’s fraught childhood under a domineering father, his affairs both unsatisfying and passionate, his friendship with later executor Max Brod, and his legacy in the trinkets of modern-day Prague tourist traps, the film explores the many dreams and contradictions that inspired Kafka’s surreal works.  “Similarly to his writings, Franz the film is interested in a distilled, abstracted meditation on power, the law, control and desire that transcends the banal borders of realism.” —Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter, 09/08/2025.

Franz world premiered at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival and was nominated for three European Film Awards, including Best European Actor (Idan Weiss). 

Franz
Dir. Agnieszka Holland
Czechia/Germany/Poland, 2025
127 min.
With Idan Weiss, Peter Kurth, Katharina Stark, Sebastian Schwarz, Carol Schuler