Franz Kafka's life wasn't so kafkaesque after all, TV miniseries shows
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Max Brod (left), a recognized writer at the time, relentlessly promoted the writings of his friend, Franz Kafka, played here respectively by David Kross and Joel Basman in the Austrian-German series Kafka, now streaming in the U.S.ORF/Superfilm/Nicole Albiez / Superfilm -
Max Brod (David Kross) and his wife Elsa (Tamara Stern) escaped Prague on one of the last trains to leave the city before Nazi forces took control, recognizing the danger to Jews like himself. He carried Franz Kafka's papers with him in a suitcase.Copyright ORF/Superfilm/Nicole Albiez / Superfilm -
Kafka's domineering father Hermann (Nicholas Ofczarek) plays a central role in his life and writings.Copyright ORF/Superfilm/Nicole Albiez / Superfilm -
The series alternates between biographical material, historical context and scenes from Kafka's writings.Copyright ORF/Superfilm/Nicole Albiez / Superfilm -
Kafka's longtime fiancée Felice Bauer (Lia von Blarer, right) got so fed up with his constant equivocation that she confronted him alongside her friend, Grete Bloch (Marie-Luise Stockinger), an event that inspired the novel The Trial.Copyright ORF/Superfilm/Nicole Albiez / Superfilm -
The poet Rainer Maria Rilke, played by Lars Eidinger, is shown moved to tears after reading Kafka's The Metamorphosis, the story of a man who turns into an insect that was inspired by a confrontation between Kafka's domineering father and the writer's Yiddish actor friend Yitzhak Löwy.Copyright ORF/Superfilm/Nicole Albiez / Superfilm -
Kafka was engaged four times and never married, keeping most relationships long-distance via extensive letter-writing. His penultimate relationship was with the writer Milena Jesenská (Liv Lisa Fries), who recognizes his talent.Copyright ORF/Superfilm/Nicole Albiez / Superfilm -
Two men in leather coats (Raimund Wallisch, left, and Gerhard Liebmann) lurk in the background, a representation of the angst and absurdities of bureaucracy that concerned Kafka.Copyright ORF/Superfilm/Nicole Albiez / Superfilm
If you've ever felt powerless when confronted with faceless bureaucracy, confounded by absurd accusations or simply hopeless, chances are the word "kafkaesque" might sum up your situation.
But a television miniseries released in the U.S. this month shows Prague-born author Franz Kafka, whose work inspired the word, as anything but kafkaesque. Tortured recluse he is not here.
Instead, Kafka is a wrangler of labyrinthian bureaucratic systems, so successful in fact that his bosses do all in their power to keep him at home and prevent him from enlisting in World War I. That's the story according to Kafka, a six-part series that was co-produced by Germany's ARD, Austria's ORF and Superfilm.
"We all think we hear of the bureau, or the office, that it's a dark world and it's apocalyptic (for Kafka). But in the real world, it was a paradise," Director David Schalko told NPR's Michel Martin during a joint interview with Joel Basman, who plays the title role.
Schalko said he was inspired to take on the project after reading Reiner Stach's three-volume biography of Kafka, originally published in German between 2002 and 2014. In rejecting the usual tropes of equivocating Kafka's angst-ridden works with the writer's life, Schalko's biopic offers a lush, more humanly complex picture.
One perspective per episode
ChaiFlicks, a streaming platform focused on Jewish content, is releasing new episodes weekly since the June 6 U.S. debut. Each episode focuses on a different perspective of Kafka's life.
The first theme is the author's relationship with his close friend Max Brod — who ultimately defied Kafka's wish to have all his manuscripts burned and instead posthumously became his biographer and literary executor.
The other episodes focus on the his (bourgeois) family, three of his lovers and his role as an insurance lawyer.
In episode four, Kafka wins successive court cases and contracts for the company. He is held in high esteem by his superiors at the Workers’ Accident Insurance Institute. They also admire his writings and press him to review their own mediocre texts. It's an admiration that Kafka does not reciprocate.
"He was very good rhetorically and he was fighting for the insurance company," Schalko said. "It's not the silent Kafka who is not able to talk in front of other people. It shows a complete different Kafka."
Basman says he felt compelled in portraying Kafka to "get away from the cliché of him being a depressed person. First of all, he's a funny man. He's got humor. And of course, he's got his issues, and we all got them in our lives, but he was far away from depressed."
A century since Kafka's death
The series' release coincides with the 100th anniversary of Kafka's death this month. And it comes at a time of renewed interest in the writer, who has become an unexpected hot item among a younger generation reflecting on alienation via posts on TikTok.
Just last year, readers could finally access a new translation of Kafka's diaries, by Ross Benjamin. Prior versions relied on a manuscript heavily edited and redacted by Kafka's friend Brod, whose version was polished and removed lewd, homoerotic and unflattering material concerning Kafka and himself.
The unfiltered version shows a more hesitant Kafka who often left his thoughts unfinished mid-sentence — not surprising for an author who never didn't complete the three novels he started and whose characters struggled with the impossibility of finishing tasks.
"The feeling to wake up and feel like vermin, like an insect, and feeling the shame and get canceled by the others, is a feeling you know from social media very well," Schalko said, while pointing to arbitrary arrests in Russia as another example.
"He also writes about the bureaucracy and how it feels to be a human being in a system that doesn't see you as a human being. And that's a big issue in our times as well."
In a memorable scene in episode three, Kafka brings home for dinner a traditional Yiddish theater actor he befriended, Yitzhak Löwy. But Kafka's domineering father, Hermann, disapproves and says Löwy is dirty and compares him to an insect.
The confrontation inspired Kafka to write his novella The Metamorphosis, the story of a man who turns into a bug. Kafka had also written a 100-page letter criticizing his father — the closest he came to writing an autobiography — though he neither sent nor published it.
"For his father, it was more important to be accepted by the elites of Prague; he tried to maybe even hide his Judaism," Basman said.
The Swiss-born actor says he could relate to this ambiguity in Kafka's family identity because his own father is originally from Israel but he's an atheist.
"I was never Jewish enough, but I also was never Swiss enough... I realized, okay, people want to brand you and if they can't brand you, they don't want you on their team," Basman said.
"I think for Kafka, religion was also just a journey of getting to know himself because it was hidden by his father so strongly that he took this journey by himself."
Kafka and women
The women in Kafka's life also left an indelible mark. He was engaged several times but never married. One of his fiancées was Felice Bauer, Brod's cousin. The pair meet and only get to know each superficially before Kafka sends her hundreds of agonizing letters for months on end, through an initial parting, a second engagement and a final breakup.
Fed up with Kafka's constant equivocation, Bauer at one point confronts him, letters in hand, with her friend Grete Bloch — another recipient of letters from Kafka — by her side. The episode drawn from the writer's life inspired his novel The Trial, published posthumously in 1925.
The protagonist Joseph K. navigates an absurdly complex bureaucratic system and makes mistakes that make him look guilty of an unknown crime for which he is put on trial and then executed "like a dog."
Kafka is available to stream on ChaiFlicks. New episodes will release weekly.
The broadcast version of this story was produced by Mansee Khurana. The digital version was edited by Obed Manuel.
Transcript
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
If you've ever felt the world is oppressive, bureaucratic, absurd, you might have called it Kafkaesque, and it comes from Franz Kafka - the novelist and master of angst and the absurd - whose works are still widely read and taught after his death, 100 years ago this month. Now a six-part series produced in Germany and Austria is being released in the U.S. on ChaiFlicks around the anniversary, and it adds new depth to our understanding of the man, far beyond the image of the tortured recluse. The series was directed by David Schalko, and actor Joel Basman plays Kafka. They're both here with us now, to tell us more about the series and Kafka. Welcome to you both. Thank you both so much for joining us.
JOEL BASMAN: Hi.
DAVID SCHALKO: Hello.
MARTIN: Mr. Schalko, I'm going to start with you. Let me start with your experience with Kafka's work prior to this project, and what made you want to do it?
SCHALKO: Well, 10 years ago, I read the biographies by Reiner Stach. There are three parts, and I was really excited about it because those were the best biographies I've ever read, and this is the reason why we chose to tell it from six different perspectives. One perspective is Max Brod, but then you have also the family perspective; his connection to being Jewish, but also to the women in his life - and, of course, the office, which is the biggest cliche because we all think it's a dark world and it's apocalyptic, but in the real world, it was a paradise because there were only writers working there, admiring him and it made it possible that he had time to write.
MARTIN: In the fourth episode, we find out that Kafka is actually a brilliant bureaucrat. His superiors wouldn't let him enlist for World War I because they wanted to save his life.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "KAFKA")
BASMAN: (As Franz Kafka, speaking German).
MARTIN: And I was curious about how you fought to portray this ambivalence between, on the one hand, his kind of fear and dread of bureaucracy, but in fact, it was the bureaucracy that saved him. I mean, how did you think about that?
SCHALKO: Well, this scene shows he's in front of industrial leaders, and he tries to convince them of a contract. And he was very good rhetorically, and he was fighting for the insurance company. And this scene shows how good he was in his profession and that it's not the silent Kafka who is not able to talk in front of other people. It shows a complete different Kafka.
MARTIN: So, Joel, what was particularly fun about it, or perhaps challenging, about portraying him?
BASMAN: For me, it was really important to get away from, like, the cliche, he being a depressed person. First of all, he's a funny man. He got humor, and of course, he got his issues, and we all got them in our lives, but he was far away from depressed.
MARTIN: Kafka was ethnically Jewish but more of an atheist, and I was wondering how you kind of brought in those other contradictions. There's an episode where we see this clearly. In the third one, he befriends a Yiddish theater actor.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "KAFKA")
KONSTANTIN FRANK: (As Jizchak Lowy, speaking German).
BASMAN: For his father, it was more important to be accepted by the elite of Prague. He tried to hide his Judaism, and bringing such a Hasidic Jew - it's like a revenge for Kafka. And Jizchak Lowy is his name - and just stands there on the table and confronts the family. He thinks that they are not really Jewish.
MARTIN: You do so much, Joel, with your face in this. And obviously, I love radio, but I'm sorry that people can't see all the things that you do...
BASMAN: (Laughter).
MARTIN: ...With your face to kind of bring these contradictory feelings and thoughts, you know, to life. How did you embody that?
BASMAN: My father is originally from Israel. I'm an atheist, so there are some parts that I could relate really good, and also, I was never Jewish enough, but I also was never Swiss enough, but I realized - OK, people want to brand you, and if they can't brand you, they don't want you in their team. I think for Kafka also, based on the religion, it was also just a journey of getting to know himself because he was hidden by his father so strongly that he took this journey by himself. And now when I hear the name Kafka, I feel like you talk about a family member because I really got into his life. He was an absolute genius person who could, like, watch people for hours and just think about them.
MARTIN: David, to that point, one of the things about the series is that you depict, in some instances, the scenes from his books. The gorgeousness of it kind of makes this really interesting contrast to when it gets disturbing (laughter), if that makes sense.
SCHALKO: Yeah, exactly. That was the plan. It was - for us, it was the most important thing to show the connection between the life of Kafka and his literature. For example, the father calls Jizchak Lowy an insect. Out of this expression, Kafka had the idea for "The Metamorphosis." Or when Felice, his fiancee, she's doing a private trial over him and saying, why are you not marrying me, out of this, "The Trial" as we know it as a book, it was beginning to rise in his head. But the reality also looks like it's a little bit the world of Franz Kafka.
MARTIN: Well, before we let you go, this series comes as Kafka's work has gained traction on social media apps like TikTok. Why do you think people are finding new meaning in it?
SCHALKO: I think that the setups of Kafka are timeless and always relevant, because the feeling, for example, that someone comes and you get arrested and you don't know why is something you always know - especially people in Russia know it at the moment, for example. The feeling to wake up and feeling like a worm and like an insect and feeling the shame and got canceled by the hours, for example, is a feeling you know from social media very well. And there are many, many situations that are always relevant in any time we live. And he also writes about the bureaucracy and how it feels to be a human being in a system that doesn't see you as a human being, and that's a big issue in our times, as well, I think.
MARTIN: That is David Schalko. He directed the miniseries "Kafka." He was joined by actor Joel Basman, who plays the title role. The streaming platform ChaiFlicks is releasing the series in the U.S., starting this month. Joel Basman, David Schalko - thank you so much for joining us.
BASMAN: Thank you for having us.
SCHALKO: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF SICILY AND MARIO SCALAMBRIN'S "TRIBAL TANGO") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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