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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.